Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has admitted that the team will miss their top striker Victor Osimhen when they face Sierra Leone in Tuesday’s (today) 2021 African Cup of Nations at the Siaka Stevens Stadium.
Rohr who watched as the Eagles were held to a 4-4 draw last Friday in Benin stated that the players are ready to fight for the entire duration of the game.
“We are confident, they (Nigerians) should believe that the players can fight for all Nigerian supporters and they will give their best,” Rohr told the Nigeria Football Federation media in Freetown.
I think we are ready for this match. We’ll miss Osimhen, perhaps there will be another change in the team, but the players will have the honour to represent the country, they will give their best and will fight till the end of the match.
“Our objective all the time is to win the game. We wanted four points in both legs to qualify, it’s still possible and I believe in my team, and I think we can do that, it will be difficult like I told you before the first leg, we saw in the second half that they have a good team, but we can play very well.
We showed it in the first 30 minutes the other day, we want to play our football like that. Playing forward, scoring goals but defending better than we did the last time.
“The expectation is to have a good match, we’ve discovered the condition of the stadium, the grass and the hot weather. The travelling was okay, a bit long but I think we can recover in the afternoon,”
Assistant captain, William Troost-Ekong, says the team is ready and hungry to fight for a win.
We’ve prepared like any game we’ve done with this team, we’re not underestimating anyone, and I think if we can just bring what we did in the last game in the first half and make sure we keep our concentration and see out the game, I think we have a very good chance to do what we want to do,” Troost-Ekong said.
“Nigerians should expect a team that is going to be very hungry, to get the win, and we want to qualify as soon as possible.”
