Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr has blamed his players admitting that his young team was not mentally strong against Sierra Leone but has backed them to ‘fight for a win’ in Freetown on Tuesday after last Friday’s 4-4 draw at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, Edo, State.
Rohr watched his team squander a four-goal lead which delayed their qualification for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations as Sierra Leone made a spirited fightback to tie the game 4-4 in an astonishing style.
A brace from Alex Iwobi and strikes from Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze gave the Eagles a 4-0 lead just before the half-hour mark but a total collapse saw a double from Alhaji Kamara and strikes from Kwame Quee Mustapha Bundu complete an astonishing comeback.
Ahead of Tuesday’s tie at the Siaka Stevens Stadium in Freetown where the Leone Stars have not lost at home in seven years, Rohr says his team is determined and to redeem themselves.
“If they are lucky or not I cannot promise you but they will fight, we will go there to win the match,” Rohr told the Super Eagles YouTube channel.
“I think during the half time, the players believed it was finished, but it was not. It’s a good lesson for everybody – to the staff, to the players. We have to react, I can promise you that we will react.
“Hot weather affected the players coming from Europe especially and then a collapse came and, in the end, our main striker (Victor Osimhen) suffered an injury.
“Mentally, especially our young players are not strong enough for these kinds of games so we have to check, we should not forget it was very good in the first half, we cannot forget but the result is here one point.
“We need another three points now to qualify, we want to do it there in Freetown.
“Everybody is determined, everybody is vexed, nobody slept, so we are trying to do some training and, in the meeting, we did speak about the mistakes.
“I am sure they will react because I know my team, I know what they can do, they showed it in the first half, if we can maintain the energy for the second half, we can do it in Freetown.”
Credit: punchng.com
