Chelsea Legend Gianfranco Zola Blasts Rohr For Tactical Naivety In Eagles Loss To Croatia

Chelsea hero Gianfranco Zola has accused Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr of being tactically naive in the wake of the national team's 2-0 loss to Croatia in their World Cup opener on Saturday night.

The USA 1994 World Cup star reckons that Rohr would have made tactical and formation changes in the second half but the German failed to do so.

Speaking as an analyst on SuperSport, Zola said : ''I believe that Croatia hasn't played a fantastic game, I think they won the game mainly because of the mistakes Nigeria made

''Also because Nigeria wasn't unable to change the original plan, because when they went 1-0 down they could have done something more to change the dynamics of the team, and something they didn't do well, that's why the lost the game.''

Oghenekaro Etebo sent the ball into his own net in the 32nd minute to give Croatia the lead, and the Europeans doubled their advantage with nineteen minutes remaining after a defensive blunder by the inexperienced William Troost-Ekong.

The Super Eagles will lock horns with Iceland in their second Group D fixture at the Volgograd Arena, Volgograd on Friday, June 22.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel