Rohr Reveals The One Area That Madagascar Are Better Than Eagles; Discusses Potential Round Of 16 Opponents

Published: June 29, 2019

Coach Gernot Rohr has advised the Super Eagles defenders to be at their best when they face Madagascar on Sunday as he believes the opponents are an attacking threat.

Nigeria managed to score two goals in total against Burundi and Guinea while The Barea found the net on three occasions, a stat that proves they are better offensively than the Super Eagles so far in the tournament, according to Rohr.

''The Madagascar team we saw them doing better than us in scoring three goals against teams we scored two against,'' Rohr told reporters at Saturday's press conference attended by allnigeriasoccer.com.

''They were better offensively against them but we have a solid performance in our two games, we didn't concede a goal.

''There will be an interesting match to see against a team with a lot of offensive qualities. Also, they scored a free-kick, from corners and we saw them playing on Thursday they had a very good match.

''The winner will come first in the group so it is a big motivation for us to win this game. We know that a draw is enough to finish top but we play to win our games all the time. ''

At least 16 people were crushed to death at a stadium in Madagascar during independence day celebrations this week and Rohr offered his condolences over the incident.

''I have sympathy for the nice country Madagascar because they had an accident in the Stadium on the National Day, 16 people died so they deserve this joy to be qualified .

''They have qualified already even if they lose and to bring some joy to the people who had this accident,'' the German said.

Looking beyond the Madagascar game, there is a possibility that Nigeria will face one of the third-placed teams in Group A, C or D, and Rohr revealed that his assistants are already running the rule over potential opponents.

''It is important to finish first in the group because it is better to play a third placed team than second so we will do all to finish top of the group.

''It can be three different teams, we have our scout Agali watching a lot of games in Cairo. We have all the matches on TV and we can see our analyzer Nabi Trabelsi.

''We have to prepare to play against a good team, we know that it could be South Africa if they are third, could be Congo eventually.

''In all the cases, there will be very tough matches in the round of 16 but we are not there for the moment. We are focused on our game tomorrow,'' Rohr concluded.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel