Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has warned his players not to expect an easy game against Leone Stars of Sierra Leone on Friday, Completesports.com reports.
Rohr’s charges will host their fellow West Africans in a matchday three fixture of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
The Leone Stars like the Super Eagles have a number of quality players plying their trade outside the shores of the country including captain Umaru Bangura, Kei Kamara and Augustine Williams.
Rohr believes the Leone Stars will be a tough nut to crack and warned that his players must be ready to give their all against them on Friday.
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“We are expecting a tough match because our opponent, Sierra Leone have quality players too. It will not be an easy game because they have professional players,”Rohr stated during his interaction with the media after Tuesday training session.
“My work is to first explain to the players that this will not be an easy game. We cannot underrate this Sierra Leone team.
“We have 16 players today, three goalkeepers and were expecting more. It’s not easy to travel across Europe because we have a lot of restrictions. Not many flights are coming to Nigeria at the moment. Some of the players have to travel through Ethiopia down to Lagos
“The last players we are expecting in camp is Shehu Abdullahi who got a late invitation for this game on Sunday.”
Rohr also states that it will be important for his players to start the game with the right spirit.
”We want to make a good match as always. The result is very important because it is not a friendly. We are playing at home and it is important to win,”he adds.
“We know it is going to be a difficult game. Seychelles came to Asaba and gave us a good fight during the qualifiers for the last AFCON. We have to go into the match with all our strength. We must start the game very well and be on the offensive.”
The Super Eagles last played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in 2011, a friendly encounter against the Zebras of Botswana.
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Rohr is happy with their new home ground and believes his side will enjoy playing on the lush green turf.
“It’s the time for me in Benin City and for the players as well. We are happy to be here. To discover this beautiful stadium, it’s a beautiful place to play football.We hope we can have few fans come in to watch the game.
“Football is not same when the stadiums are empty. What is interesting for us is that pitch is okay and we can play good football. We tried in the training session two touches and other things. We discovered it will be easy for us to play good and quality football on this pitch.”
By Adeboye Amosu in Benin City
9 Comments
Looks like the pitch is in decent shape. And Rohr has the right mental attitude. No underrating, just focus and determination. Looking good so far.
I agree with this @Pompei. We will win Sierra Leone. Carry go.
@pompei the beheaded foolish man. I guess you never expected this kind of pitch in Benin too. idiotic personality, your stupid question about the pitch have been answered by rohr, your kinds come here to embarrass your self by discriminating other tribes and their environments, headless human being , I never expected you could read and write like this, speaking Nko? I hope it will be good? u can as well eat up ur shit that will run your stomach to hell, since you don’t have good food in where you come from. god punish that your headless self.
Also they should pray the Benin rain don’t fall on that Friday, Benin rain is like vodoooo it will destroy and just stop. All the best Super Eagles.
“My work is to first explain to the players that this will not be an easy game. We cannot underrate this Sierra Leone team”
I said this in my last comment. I hope the coach will use the right tactics and stop converting players when we have players.
Also, “Rohr is happy with their new home ground and believes his side will enjoy playing on the lush green turf”.
Indeed, this stadium is beautiful. Kudos to the governor.
However, Benin stadium is not the home of the Super Eagles. Is like NFF are running around the bush.
Surulere stadium in Lagos is the home of Super Eagles. I’m pretty sure that when the time comes, Super Eagles will return to their original home.
There are so many advantages when Eagles play in Lagos. We have fans and Eagles will give it all to make the fans and all Nigerians happy.
I am so happy that the Lagos stadium is under construction. In fewer years to come Super Eagles will surely returns to Lagos.
But for now, the players should enjoy themselves in Benin city. Good luck Super Eagles. God bless Nigeria!!!
@omo9ja first time I am reading something nice from you. You did not out ire o.
Good talk by the coach as regards to being on the front foot and giving the fans entertaining football. But to be honest, with the calibre of players we have at our disposal compared to those from Sierra Leone, the SE victory should be a resounding one. Only osimen’s salary is more than the entire Leone stars players combined. I know some will say there are no minnows in soccer anymore while I agree to some extent, this does not apply to teams like Lesotho and Sierra Leone. These countries are still minnows when compared to 9ja. Eemember we aren’t parading an experimental team and we can’t say we are missing players that can’t easily be replaced with the exception of maybe Ndidi. Kalu and Simon are easily replaceable. Just imagine Belgium playing against Gibraltar or Kosova and saying these teams aren’t minnows or being a tough nut to Crack. If our players can’t beat Sierra Leone, it won’t be the coaches fault alone but the players should bear the brunt of the criticism as it will confirm that they truly aren’t good enough. The team should expect the lone stars to defend as if their lives depend on it, so we should tire them out by making them chase shadows all day, so once tired we can pick them apart. Like I said I expect a resounding victory with at least a 2 goal margin. We shouldn’t be complacent tho as we tend to concede early in games, the players should try to cut this out. Just my personal opinion. Forza SE, vamos SE
For Rohr to commend the level work done on the stadium means the stadium is really up to standard, it should be the best stadium in Nigeria today, in terms of facility. Kudos to the working governor for a fantastic job done.
I think NFF made the right choice for making Benin the venue of this encounter. Those that were wailing, and asking why must be Ogbemudia stadium? can now eat their humble pie.
The only stadium with VAR in Nigeria!!! Benin is always ahead,,,, great Benin kingdom