Rohr Sticks To His Guns : Second Choice GK Ezenwa Starts Ahead Of Akpeyi & Afelokhai Against RSA

Published: November 16, 2018

Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr is sticking to his guns having opted to include Enyimba goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa in the starting line-up for tomorrow's Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against South Africa.

For those who know his methods, the former Bayern Munich defender had already indicated from the word go that the Enyimba glovesman will be in between the pipes against Bafana Bafana as he played for the Team A in all the training sessions prior to the trip to Johannesburg.

In addition, Ezenwa underwent a special session with the goalkeeper trainer, Alloy Agu, to get him back to full fitness on the first day of training in Asaba and he passed the test with flying colours.

Naturally, the 30-year-old won the battle for the goalkeeping duties because he is second choice behind Deportivo de La Coruña loanee Francis Uzoho who had to pull out of the squad after suffering a month long injury.

The third goalkeeper Theophilus Afelokhai was only called up just to make up the numbers and Rohr indicated as much when he confirmed that either Ezenwa or Akpeyi will start against South Africa.

Including the forfeited match against Algeria, Ezenwa was in goal in four of the last six games played by Nigeria in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

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