Super Eagles manager, Gernot Rohr, has lamented the long list of injured players after the Nigerian national team were held to a goalless draw against Cameroon ahead of the world cup qualifiers.
Rohr’s men avoided a defeat in Tuesday’s international friendly at Stadion Wiener Neustadt after last week’s 1-0 loss in the first leg against the Indomitable Lions, according to Goal.
Speaking after the game, Rohr lamented that his side could have scored if he had the likes of Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Joe Aribo, amongst others who missed the encounter due to respective injuries.
The games have been put together as part of Nigeria’s preparation for the World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde Islands in August and September, respectively.
However, speaking on Super Eagles’ Instagram handle after the goalless draw in Ausitria, Rohr remained optimistic that the Super Eagles would be ready for September’s World Cup qualifier against Liberia.
He said: “The result is not the most important thing in these friendlies.
“The most important thing is to test some players, to see some of these new faces. That was the case today, we didn’t want to concede.
“We wanted to score but we could not, but when you are missing players like [Victor] Osimhen, [Samuel] Chukwueze, [Joe] Aribo], [Samuel] Kalu and Henry [Onyekuru], it’s not easy.
“These players came in the middle of their holidays to work hard for ten days with us.
“The fruit of the work will come. I think we will be ready in September for our World Cup qualifier against Liberia.
“We had a problem building the defence, so we played for the first time with Valentine and he did very well.
“He finished the match with Moses Simon who played in the left-back position and we didn’t concede a goal.
“I am very happy for Valentine. A lot of people did not understand why he was with us and he showed the reasons today. He did very well with his left foot in the central defence.”
The Super Eagles will take on Mexico in their next international friendly match that has been scheduled to hold on July 4.
