Confident Rohr tips Eagles for Qatar 2022 World Cup

.Rues Moses, Mikel, Ighalo retirements   

By Taofeek Babalola

 

Coach Gernot Rohr has expressed his ambitions to lead Super Eagles to Qatar 2022 World Cup. 

Nigeria are drawn against Liberia, Cape Verde and Central African Republic in group C for the second round of the African qualifiers for Qatar 2022.

In conversation with FIFA.com, the German tactician, who led Nigeria to the Russia 2018 World Cup, believes the Super Eagles have qualities to secure one of the tickets to represent the continent at the world biggest football showpiece in Qatar.

The former Tunisia manager said Nigeria will treat their opponents with respect.

“We have three opponents in the group and have to respect all of them. Liberia are a team that can’t be underestimated as we saw when we beat them in a friendly. As for Cape Verde, they have players of Portuguese and Brazilian origin, and they can beat any team. Central African Republic are an unknown quantity for us, which makes it more difficult. I think the group is tough, but we believe in our capabilities. Given that we qualified from the group of death for Russia 2018, we’re confident we can make it this time as well,” Rohr said in an interview on FIFA.com.

Speaking on the final round of the qualification, Rohr said: “There will be fierce competition regardless, but when we play without fans we’ll miss the excitement. I hope fans can attend games next year as this will make the matches more enjoyable.”

Nigeria failed to progress to the knockout stages at the last World Cup in Russian after narrowly losing their final group game to Argentina but the former Burkina Faso gaffer was pleased with the performances of his boys in the tournament.

“Yes, we deserved to qualify. We played very well particularly against Iceland, and we had a goalkeeper who was only 18. Against Argentina, we needed a few more minutes to hit back [after their late goal], and small details made the difference in the end. We almost got a second penalty, but VAR denied it. What we did in Russia was very encouraging nonetheless,” he said.

On his feeling about Victor Moses, Obi Mikel and Odion Ighalo decisions to quit international football, he said: “We were sorry Moses retired. The same applies to Obi Mikel and Ighalo, because they’re fantastic players. They decided to retire for family reasons or to play in China and focus on their club careers, and we respected their decisions.”