Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says the absence of key players in his team led to the 0-1 defeat they suffered at home against Central Africa Republic (CAR) in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
CAR created one of the upset in the African qualifiers so far defeating Nigeria 1-0 with a late minute goal with Nigeria guilty of wasting opportunity presented to them in promising area as well as having more of the ball.
Rohr while explaining the defeat said it was largely down to not making their possession count and also the absence of key players like Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi even though the new players didn’t do badly.
“The players are still disappointed in the dressing room and still not understanding why we could lose this match,” Rohr told Goal.
“When we analyzed it, we dominated possession of the ball, we had several opportunities to score but we did not score and very often in football, there was a counter and our opponents scored.
“Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, we lost. We had the opportunity to score but we couldn’t.
“We have to recover, and we have to make some changes in the team. We missed the creativity of Iwobi, we also missed Ndidi so much.
“It was not easy for [Frank] Onyeka and a first-timer [Taiwo] Awoniyi to come in this team.”
He charged his wards to make amend with a good result away in Douala when they play the reverse tie on Sunday. A win will see them move to within three points of qualifying for the final round of qualifiers if Cape Verde beat Liberia in the other group game.
“Cape Verde were well organised but we are still ahead in the group and in three days time, I believe we will be able to win the match,” he continued.
“It will not be in Central Africa, it will be in Cameroon and on a very good pitch.
“Also, I think the fighting spirit of the team is still there. I hope in the next game, we will be luckier than today.
“There will be some changes. Already, there are some injuries and I don’t know if Kelechi [Iheanacho] is able to play because he had a knock.
“We have some players who are tired because they ran a lot and were fighting as always. This defeat will surely make their recovery more difficult.
“They will not sleep well tonight but we have to recover and prepare for Sunday’s game which we must win.”
