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2022 World Cup qualifiers: Nigeria expecting more difficult game against Cape Verde - Rohr
After Friday's win in Lagos, the Super Eagles have shifted their attention to Tuesday's trip to Mindelo for their second qualifying game
Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr is anticipating a more difficult challenge from Cape Verde when both countries clash for their second 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying fixture.
The three-time African champions are scheduled to leave Lagos for the island country a day before Tuesday’s evening encounter.
They started their qualification campaign for Qatar 2022 with a 2-0 win over Liberia on Friday, thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho’s first-half brace.
In his assessment, the German coach expressed satisfaction with the team's performance at the Teslim Balogun Stadium after they kept their fourth clean sheet in a competitive game.
“Job has been done, we had to win our first game at home and we didn’t want to concede a goal also to show that now we are stable behind, so for four or five games now we didn’t concede a goal,” Rohr said after the match.
“We knew some of our players have to leave after the match and they had to do well before leaving because they cannot go to Cape Verde.
“We scored our two goals in the first half and we were calm and played our football but under difficult conditions because after the rain, the pitch was not easy to play for the two teams but we had to adapt under the circumstances.”
Next up for Nigeria, is a match against Cape Verde who settled for a 1-1 draw with Central African Republic on Wednesday but Rohr is aware of the threats posed by the Blue Sharks.
Meanwhile, nine UK-based players will not make the trip to Mindelo because the country is included in the British government's red-list countries for coronavirus.
He continued: “Nine players are leaving so there will be another team. It’s not easy to beat another team in only two days and also to play on synthetic pitch especially after playing on a dry grass.
“Now we have to beat another team so it’s a challenge for the staff and the players. But we have to show our solidarity and for the players coming in now, who will be 20 going for the game.
“We will have to manage the situation and I believe our team will put in another good performance even knowing it will be a more difficult game than Liberia.”
