Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has hailed goalkeeper Maduka Okoye and debutants Kevin Akpoguma and Zaidu Sanusi, after the team’s friendlies in Austria, but admits this will make selection of players difficult ahead of their 2022 AFCON double-header qualifier against Sierra Leone a difficult task.
The Eagles lost 1-0 to Algeria before they were held 1-1 by Tunisia Tuesday night in their build-up to the forthcoming AFCON double-header against Sierra Leone next month.
“We saw confirmation in those games like the goalkeeper (Maduka Okoye), the left back (Zaidu Sanusi) and the new defender who came in to the team (Kevin Akpoguma). He can play in the defence and at right back and also in the midfield as well.
“I think the team is in a good shape and I believe these very good friendly games will help us to return to winning ways when we play Sierra Leone next month (home and away).
“Good results next month may see us qualifying for the 2022 AFCON already,” Rohr told the Super Eagles official Youtube Page in an interview after the draw with Tunisia.
“Now it is going to be difficult for me to pick our list for the AFCON qualifiers next month because of the new boys who did well.”
“It was a very good training camp with the boys.
“We are happy to have had this opportunity to be camped in Austria for 10 days. It was a very good feeling to be together again after being away for 11 months, although we missed some key players in midfield, our three goalkeepers and our goalscorer. We had to find a solution to these problems.
“The two games were very close. It was not a friendly, they were competitive games.
“We have some positives to pick out from the games because inspite of missing some key players we still competed well. If we had them for these games we would have won both games.
The Eagles will host the Leone Stars in Asaba on November 9, before the two teams clash again in Freetown not later than November 17.
Benin and Lesotho are the other teams in the group.
