Rohr Explains Exactly Why Osimhen, Onyekuru Did Not Feature Vs Madagascar

Published: June 30, 2019

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr faced the cameras shortly after his side lost 2-0 to Madagascar in their final group game of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Given that the Super Eagles were already through to the round of 16 before Sunday's fixture, a lot of fans wanted Rohr to give a chance to strikers Victor Osimhen and Henry Onyekuru but the German opted to field his strongest strike force.

Explaining the reason behind his decision, Rohr told reporters including allnigeriasoccer.com : ''Yes we had to see some other players that's why we made five changes.

''We had to see the second goalkeeper, we had to see Ekong again, we wanted to see Kalu after his health problem and we wanted to see John Ogu.

''You cannot change 11 players, we changed half of the team already which is much. Of course we would like to see other players but sometimes the attitude of the players in the training sessions, general attitude, they show us that they are not ready for such a big game.

''It was good to see the other players, we could give some rest to the important players, we cannot change all the players as we want to win also against this team who had this harmony to play the three games together.

''We had a lot of changes. Ighalo and Musa had to play because they were sick, they did not play so much the last time and they need the rhythm and also we wanted to score a goal but we could not.''

Following their loss to Madagascar, the Super Eagles will face the second ranked team in Group F in Alexandria on Saturday, July 6.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : cafonline.com