Former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr says opponents have found a weakness in the senior national team of Nigeria which they used during the course of the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Rohr’s team Benin Republic qualified alongside Nigeria from their group in the AFCON qualifiers and both teams will go head to head once again next year, when the qualifiers for the 2026 world cup resumes.
The coach who handled Nigeria for a period of above five years was asked about the main issue he thinks the Super Eagles suffered from in the qualifiers, which they ended with a 1-2 loss to Rwanda at home. Rohr’s team got whipped in Nigeria by the Austine Eguavoen led team before securing a 1-1 draw at their adopted home ground in Cote d’ Ivoire.
” I think most teams know that their central defenders are not the quickest and without Semi Ajayi they look suspect defending set pieces against my team and also Rwanda. It’s something that we tried to exploit just like other teams during the qualifiers”, he stated.
He however warned the other teams in the Super Eagles group for the world cup qualifiers not to rate the team based on the performance in the AFCON qualifiers, when hostilities resume in the world cup qualifiers in March next year.
” It will be very wrong to say the team we saw in the AFCON qualifiers will be the same next year so the world cup qualifiers. My team won’t be the same as well. I know the Nigerian team very well and they can turn it up when the need arises”, he concluded.
