New Telegraph

AFCON draw tricky for Eagles – Rohr

…insists opener against Egypt crucial
Ugbade charges team to go for trophy
Sanusi wary of Guinea Bissau

Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has described the Africa Cup of Nations draw that was conducted Tuesday night as a tricky one. Nigeria was drawn in Group D alongside seven-time winner of the championship, Egypt, Guinea Bissau and Sudan. Speaking on a radio programme monitored in Lagos on Wednesday, Rohr said the group was not going to be easy but there was need to get a result in the opening game against Egypt. “We are looking at one or two friendlies before the competition but generally the draw is tricky,” he said. “We start on the 11th, third day into the competition, we have to be in Cameroon on the 5th, that will be five days to the competition, we will be there not for the friendly, but to prepare and put the team in shape while also adapting to the different climate as it is.

“Then I’m sure we’d have a good atmosphere in this football city, they like football very much there, first game is already very important Nigeria against Egypt, it will be a very good game and then we’ll see how we finish with good points and go through the round and last 16, it’s not an easy group but we are very confident.”

Speaking also during the programme, former international, Uduka Ugbade, said Nigeria should not be talking about coming out of the group, but winning the AFCON. According to him, every group is difficult and Nigeria should be able to navigate through Group D. He said: “We should be talking about winning the Nations Cup, the most important thing is building a very formidable team, all the players are expected to stay fit going into the competition. “The players should be motivated going into the competition and try to win the cup of Nations again which I believe that Nigeria is capable.

“Nigeria is a very strong country going into cup of Nations they have most probably the youngest at around this time that will be going into the AFCON, so this must be our year if we plan very well and boys are clearly motivated we will win.” Also, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, said they didn’t have much information about Guinea Bissau, while also claiming that every group is difficult.

Read Previous

Aisha Buhari Cup: Falcons to play Morocco, Mali

Read Next

Giving.ng partners RCA to support NFI school

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *