Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr is anticipating a tough game against Benin Republic in Saturday’s 2021 Africa Cup of qualifying tie, Completesports.com reports.
The three African champions currently top Group L with eight points, one point ahead of closest rivals Benin.
The two countries will slug it out at the Stade Charles de Gaulle, Porto- Novo on Saturday in what is expected to be a keenly contested encounter.
The Super Eagles rallied back from a goal down to beat the Squirrels 2-1 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo on matchday one.
Rohr insists his players must be at their best to beat their close door neighbours.
“We want to finish our qualification on a positive note, and the two matches against Benin and Lesotho are very important,” Rohr told CAFOnline.com.
“Of course, we know that Benin is difficult to beat after our last game in Uyo (Nigeria won 2-1) and we need at least a point against them to qualify for next year’s AFCON.
“Then, we are playing our final game in Lagos. We want to win in Lagos because it has been a long time since we last played there, and we want to conclude the qualifiers with a victory as well.
“These are not going to be easy matches because Lesotho drew with Benin, but we are going to give our best against these opponents.”
By Adeboye Amosu
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COMMENTS
Every match is difficult to win and most especially an away match no doubt but what is important to us is to qualify to Afcon.
I’m not impressed with Oga Rohr but I have no choice but to support the gaffer to get the Afcon ticket because it’s my country.
After the Afcon qualifiers, the next question is which way forward Nigerians about Oga Rohr and NFF? God bless Nigeria!!!
Hahahaha…you have no choice but to support him because he has shut you and your fellow ‘ex-jobless-internationals’ saboteurs up….LMAO.
I thought you and your Liars Utd teammates once said qualification for tournaments is immaterial….why is it suddenly now important to you…?
“…Rohr is a Mechanic…” “…this is the worst SE ever…” “…I cant name 15 players in the current SE…” – Bunch of pathetic hungry men.
Ex internationals that your country is supposed to be paying pension, you open your smelly mouth to call them names
@Dr.Drey, do you know more than the coach himself?
The gaffer is telling us the truth and you are twisting his word?
What do you about football if I may ask you Dr. Drey?
Your fried yam is having too much spicy soup on this platform young man.
Do you know more than Mr. Sęgun Ódęgbami, Amokachi, Mobi Oparaku, Udeze, and we patriotic Nigerians?
What are you insinuating here kę?
Ah bia, if Oga Rohr failed to deliver chai, you and your company have no place to hide o.
I know you really good at that but we just have to qualify first and we will shift our attention to Oga Rohr and Oga Pinnick himself because they are not moving the team forward at all. For now, all I can do is to wish the gaffer and Super Eagles good luck. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
@Christian ministries Nigeria wow!”keep his dirty mouth shut!”that was heavy,at least you should respect this man as a human first,then an elder second,thirdly for doing a good job.
He was optimistic in his statements”We are hoping to finish on a positive note”that’s optimism at the same time he has respect for his opponents which are professional standards,you have to show respect to your colleagues fellow professionals.That is the most polite thing to do,it doesn’t make you less what you are or scared of your opponents.
Qualifications is never an easy road.Argentina and Brazil most times struggle against smaller oppositions in the south American playoffs,it’s never easy playing in your continent where most teams are very much accustomed to how you play no matter how small the team looks.Most of this teams have history too to contend with it’s never as easy as it seems.
Rohr is on the brink of qualification we should be patient to criticize until after the games.
We know. All teams are always difficult for Nigeria coach to beat.
More than four years of being Nigeria coach and the country is yet to have a team.
No…you dont have a team, what you have is a herd of boy scouts….LMAO.
Mobi Oparaku, biko come and see your distant cousin o….LMAO
“…more than four years of being Nigerian coach and the country is yet to have a team.”__Says Godsate
How do u expect us to have a team when u, local agent and your cohort keep displaying names of players playing in obscure leagues on internet and pressuring the innocent poor man to invite to the national team on every international break????
Are u not one of those people that keep bringing up names of players on this forum???
I’m talking about all the “NDI INVITES”….
And now u want a team….
No b only team u go get… U go soon get bathalion….
for those calling the current team names, let me ask you this..
if you are a boss working under the same conditions Oga Rohr is working, what will be your achievement??
if you are a playing and you are being treated like those players are being treated especially during injuries, what will be your motivations??
listen! if you have not played professional football before, I don’t think you have every right to abuse any footballer nor coaches..
even some else footballers that are saying rubbish, what have they achieved in their country compared to what eto, drogba, mane, Salah has done for their country..
That your statement is not strange to Nigeria. We are already always know you for that.
god forbid distractions…….after the qualifiers the next step is adequate preparations towards winning the competition…….NO QUESTIONS…..ahahahaha
Go there and beat Benin” don’t preach how difficult it will be” nor be today we don dey beat them.
but you guys should appreciate the fact that most world class coaches no longer brag about winning matches….they rather deceive their opponents until they are caught unawares
@Lanre, no mind them. They want him to be like local coaches that always boast. Just last week, Enyimba coach was boasting on how they are going to Soweto to beat Orlando Pirates only to be outplayed on match day. You will never hear Guardiola, Klopp, Rodgers boasting about beating their opponents no matter who they play.
Hahahahahaha……we virtually posted the same thing the same time. Quite funny.
Leave them….Lol. They want him to brag like Enyimba coach that he was going away to beat Orlando Pirates only to go play 1 shot on target football for 90 mins….LMAO. It was so bad a display it would have been unfair to the hosts to come out of that match with 1 point.
We’ll rather have a coach to whom “All teams are always difficult to beat”, but has gone on to have the best win ratio ever, than the ones that will promise to roast our opponents but fail to even finish as 1 of the best loosers in the qualifiers.
Dr Drey forget about ein ratio here. He should go and do the needful. We don’t want the nonsense he did with sierra leone. He is always talking down the morale if the players. Even if he is not going to boast he should keep his dirty mouth shut.
Good talk, Coach Rohr should stop giving our opponents the the power of confidence. He is a good coach but psychologically he seems to belittle his team , and that’s not good, i’m not saying he should boast but keep his mouth shut and prepare his team to be in a killer mood.
And NFF too should also upgrade the disgraceful stadia we have in the country, so Rohr and the team can have a good, standard pitch to play on.
If Rohr had gotten that result against S/L on a good pitch, then I would also have attacked him. However, how do you in good conscience attack a workman when you fail to provide him/her with necessary tools?
Im sorry, We cant forget his win ratio. So sorry about that….Lolz. Its one of the indices used in assessing a coach’s performance. If “All teams are always difficult to beat” for a coach, but he still goes ahead and beats them and has won more games per games played than those who always brags and boasts fire and brimstones but still play kak football and end up not achieving even something as basic as qualifying for an AFCON, then than means the coach knows what he is doing. ‘All teams are always difficult to beat’ but we’ve been having roller coaster qualification for tournaments in a manner we’ve probably never experienced b4 and you think the coach does not know what “the needful” is…? “He always talks down morale of his players” but the same players whose morale have been talked down have churned up more wins per games played than even our greatest squad…..does that make sense…?? Does that add up…?? If truly the morale of the players have been talked down wouldn’t we be pilling loses upon loses. Can a psychologically down team pile up as much as almost 60% wins…?? Lets use our tongue to count our teeth.
@Christain Ministries Nigeria, kindly mind your Language…….”keep his dirty mouth shut”
I am particularly disappointed because your name here is one that subscribes to the teaching of humility and respect to others. Rohr is old enough to be your father, has achieved a lot with SE and done averagely well as a coach, so he deserves some iota of respect. Maybe you can assist him by buying him a Toothbrush and paste so his mouth can be clean……..Yeye man
Time to prove your analogy and significance of having players in top teams to us. Based on the lists of available players of both teams, Benin shouldn’t be difficult.
Belmadi’s boy, Goodluck!!
To win in Benin our midfielders must be ready to play for ninety minutes, our midfielders must go this war with bazookas not with brooms as they did against the Leone stars, with a strong midfield, the squirrels are beatable in Benin. The squirrels are rugged, strong and a bit skillful than the Leone stars, we must not underestimate them, this squirrels team can be dangerous.
I checked through the BENIN squard only to discover they have just 5 players based in africa…. Quit absurd…
Majority of them are in France where they’re expose to quality training facilities.
The same people (our sport aficionados) want our home base that can’t even withstand the STRENGTH, SKILLS & PACE of their fellow homebase from other countries (TOGO) to trade tackle with….
These are the same set of people that says they love SE & Nigeria…
Where’s the love???
When u are praying for the downfall of a country that has over 150milion passionate soccer loving fans…. u want their emotions to get hurt just bcos of your selfish, greedy ambitions…
We all know u people… “WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING…. SWORDS WITH TWO EDGES…. HYPOCRYTES….”
While our SE is matching forward…. They are left behind ploting SE downfall which never works…. This is my greatest joy and hapiness….
:::SHALOM:::
@UBFE….Sometimes I wonder what these Ex-internationals are smoking before granting interview. I was astounded and disappointed in Babayaro when I read his interview on using home based to prosecute the rest of the qualifiers. He even mentioned that during their days it’s the usual practice which was a big lie. What they want to eat will not let them reason well. Awon Ole
Sometimes being an ex-international doesn’t equate to being intelligent enough to talk sense, that’s why only few of them will succeed as a coach or a Pundit
Its all part of a calculated plan by these guys to come together to force the man out and replace him with one of their own. It has been well orchestrated, except for the ones who already have jobs and are not dependent on anyone for favors or career progression. Otherwise how can some of their statements even be valid…..This is the worst SE team ever….Nobody can list 15 players in the current SE….The current coach is a Mechanic…We used to have homebased players in our days….REALLY..?????
If GR is a mechanic,then all the coaches that couldn’t qualify the SE for 3 or 4 nations cup have no form of skill.
They are waste disposal truck drivers.
evil machinations on all sides just to get an innocent coach out nd bring one of their own who would allow them to continue to feed fat on the super eagles,the only thing that makes us smile…..conspirators shall not know peace!….they felt they have arrived when their suns were shining…..buying liabilities like exotic cars nd even jet albeit he sold it when he was faced with realities…..their mates,like ibrahimovic,ronaldo,david beckam etc. are investing into the future buying football teams,erecting gigantic hotels nd resorts,signing huge advertisement contracts etc……the super eagles brand shall continue to soar nd no amount of conspiracy would bring it down