Super Eagles coach Rohr on draw vs Cape Verde, missed chances, 'slow' central defenders

Nigeria qualified for the final round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers after securing an important point against Cape Verde on Tuesday evening at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

The kickoff whistle had barely gone when Victor Osimhen capitalized on a defensive error to put the Super Eagles ahead but Cape Verde replied five minutes later as Ianique dos Santos Tavares restored parity with a well taken finish.

The Blue Sharks failed to make their pressure count in the closing minutes of the contest as Nigeria were able to hold on to a valuable draw that sent the team into the final round of qualifiers.

Manager Gernot Rohr was pleased with the draw but pointed out a defensive deficiency that needs to be addressed ahead of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualification playoffs.

The Franco-German also highlighted the Super Eagles' inability to score a second goal with several chances missed in the opening forty five minutes.

Speaking to reporters post-match, Rohr stated : "Sometimes a draw can be like a victory, we wanted to qualify and we knew that a draw is already qualification.

"It was not an easy game because Cape Verde has a very good technical team, and they scored a goal in the moment when we believed that we had the match in the hand but we missed a lot of chances in the first half especially.

"I think that we deserved to score a second goal, second goal was not coming so we had to defend this draw and the players did it very well.

"The improvement I want to see is to exploit the opportunities we have to score, to be more effective offensively, that's what I want to see, and also to play quicker from behind, it is still too slow from behind for me.

"I want to have a quicker football with one, two touches. Coming from behind our central defenders still take much time to bring the balls forward".

Nigeria topped Group C with thirteen points ahead of nearest challengers Cape Verde, who finished on eleven points.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel