Former Nigeria international Ifeanyi Udeze says Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr must make sure his players are psychologically prepared for today’s 2021 AFCON qualifier against Sierra Leone.
The Eagles will engage the Leone Stars in the reverse fixture of the qualifier in Freetown.
In their first meeting, the Eagles surrendered a four-goal lead to draw 4-4 at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium in Benin City on Friday.
Also Read: Rohr, Troost-Ekong Talk Tough, Confident Of Super Eagles Win Vs Sierra Leone In Freetown
The three-time AFCON winners have a chance to make amends when they face Sierra Leone.
And ahead of today’s clash Udeze said it is either the three points or nothing for the Eagles.
“Rohr must make sure the players are psychologically prepared for the game and let them come out today and play with their heart, play good football and also win,” Udeze said on Brila FM on Tuesday.
“For me I don’t want to know the scoreline all I need is the three points so all the best to Rohr and all the best to the players.”
By James Agberebi
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COMMENTS
Today is the ‘Battle of Muzanga’. My candid advise to Rohr is to use players who are already accustomed to these qualifying battles and have several African qualifying match experience. The sieraleoneans exploit the wings mostly and float crosses into the box. So a 3-5-2/3-4-3 might just be the perfect set-up to nullify whatever they’ve got to throw at us while also giving us the width and flight we need on the bylines.
I am not the one to tell the coach which players he MUST use. But I feel Akpeyi needs to return in goal. Okoye is for the future, hence let us groom him for the future. For the present Uzoho and Akpeyi still remain our best bets. Say whatever u want to say about Akpeyi, but he is more accustomed to battles such as these. Oyinbo wall should return, together with Awaziem in a back 3. These 3 have played together for almost 3 years, you cant take that understanding away from them. Moreover they have played the 3 man defence together a couple of times too hence today’s match which is a crucial match will not be a 1st time. Zaidu and Ola Aina should work the flanks. Both of them seem to have the right chemistry with iwobi to cut open the wings of any team, especially Ola Aina. Their combination has several times resulted in goals in our last 10 to 15 matches. In the middle Iwobi and Etebo should orchestrate things. Keep it simple, keep it tidy…with ONLY iwobi having the license to join the attack. Musa, Iheanacho and Samu should lead the attack IMHO, with Musa dorpping into the middle like he did so effectively in Benin to give us numerical advantage there and drive balls from the central midfield to the attacking third but with more precision in his passing range this time around.
The SE have put themselves in this situation where there is ZERO slack to work with, hence they have to stand up like REAL MEN and deal with it. But all in all WE ARE QUALIFYING once again with games to spare today, right there in freetown…..even if the match is played on water.
Go go SE….We are solidly behind you. Though some people are already praying for your loss as usual….your downfall always gives them joy…LMAO. But dont worry…..they are an inconsequential number. Majority of us are solidly behind you.
Beautiful analysis and top knowledge.
Brilliant piece as usual @Dr Drey,the die is cast,and there’s no going back.Today will mark a remarkable day in our football history.A day the super eagles have to prove how super they truly are by redeeming their image from further damages against a team ranked 120th by FIFA.
After 90mins at the Siaka Stevens stadium in Freetown a lot of debate will ensue as two factions are interested in this game.One of them pro-Rohr and the other anti-Rohr.The sports minister and the football president is not left out in this because of treat of sack to the man leading the super eagles to this encounter from the bench Gernot Rohr.
A good man.The 67 years old Franco-German who has brought positive changes to Nigerian football since his appointment over 4years ago,though he has come through the storm against divided opinions on his managerial qualities and was nearly relieved of his job in a contractual dispute with his employers last year.
Frankly,I do not envy his job because today he has a point to prove and the players have the biggest role to play in making sure this good man manager remains as their gaffer going forward.
I trust Nigeria and her unrelenting spirit to get the better of their opponents in times like this.Sierra Leone will no longer be treated with kids gloves.We are going to play them as a big opponent and that serves them right for poking us in the eyes right in our home soil.
Wow! Brilliant submissions up there from Greenturf and Dr Drey. I am loving it. Thank you so much.
Today’s match is like a ‘Cup Final’ I am looking forward to it.
Cheers
Beautiful piece there @ Greenturf. Our greatest undoing with lesser teams has always been unseriousness. Whenever we are unserious we get stupidly unserious. Whenever we are serious, we get madly serious. According to what Amokachi said the other day…the only reason the SE will not win in Freetown is if those boys are not truly Nigerians. But if they are Nigerians, even if the match is played on broken bottles, we are winning this one. We gave the Benin match away to S/L. Its not like they had some technical ingenuity. We gave the match away through silly errors which the boys ordinarily dare not make in their clubs. 1st and 4th goals we were romancing the ball in dangerous areas….something we ordinarily wouldn’t do if we were playing Senegal or Brazil. 2nd goal Ajayi (just like against Lesotho) forgot how to jump despite his height and got beaten to the header. 3rd goal he even allowed the player take a selfie before picking his spot. These are things we wouldn’t do against a Cameroon or a Senegal or even Algeria. We only woke up when it was too late. I have absolute confidence in us securing victory right there on that pitch even if it is covered with thorns.
“……..he even allowed the player take a selfie before……” I love that. The boys must be razor-sharp till the final whistle. No lapses. Our pride is at stake.
@Dr Drey….lol…you no go kill me with laughter o……you me the SL scorer of 3rd goal actually took a selfie before scoring? I love your contributions on this forum a lot and i am a very big fan of yours man. Wish to know your actual profession in real life bcos you have shown by your various analysis that you are a well educated man possibly a PhD holder or a highly research oriented academic guy.
Keep it up my guy, we love you so much on this forum
Powerful submission indeed…but my candid opinion is that the boys lack determination to bring glory to Nigeria. They don’t really know what it takes to play for SE.With the exception of the goal keeper and Aribo and very few others they rest have been to the world cup and played bigger teams than Sierra leone in the WC but now they are not just determined anymore. Sacking the coach might just be part of the solution to this whole mess the boys have brought the nation into because he seems to be too slack in effecting discipline in the team.
CSN is a funny blog which everyone hails the Algerian national team and their coach for being tactical sounds and many more , but nobody is talking about Algeria playing a 2-2 draw with Zimbabwe despite leading the score-line with 2-0 ( first half ).
Zimbabwe is also ranked 111 in the world . Hence nobody should talk about the Algerian Coach being superior tactically because football is not Mathematics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lsV5nW_ifQ
Naija i Hail thee
God bless Nigeria