Former Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Gernot Rohr has expressed satisfaction at the quality of football on display at the AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire. He said smaller countries have risen to the challenge and have given a good account of themselves at the tournament.
The Franco-German commended Nigeria for being able to find the right balance in the team, but however maintained that Nigeria has become one of the favorites now, and must take the game against Angola very seriously.
In achat with Brila FM, the Franco-German spoke generally about the tournament and how unpredictable it has been in terms of results.
He also went on to voice his suppport for the Super Eagles, where he himself won a bronze medal in the 2019 edition of the tournament.
“Yes, there are no more small countries in Africa now. Like we saw teams like Namibia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Angola, they’re doing very, very well now. Even beating some very big teams like Algeria, everybody had to go home. The teams from Northern Africa. And big surprises also with the big comeback from Ivory Coast. It’s a great tournament.”
“Super Eagles are doing well now because they find a good balance between defense and attack, being five behind with three central defenders and four in the midfield and one in the striker only with Ossie Mann, which is a wonderful player. And when they have the ball, they go forward with 3-4-3. This is a good system. So now they’re favorites of the tournament.”
“And with Ivory Coast, for me, they should go until the final but it will not be easy to beat Angola. Angola played well like Cape Verde but Cape Verde we know them. They played against Nigeria and the World Cup qualifiers. We beat them in Cap Verde 2-1 and at home 1-1. it was my last match with Super Eagles and we saw already that a lot of quality was in this team. They were young and they are better now. Maturity is coming and also they they can do something, great still against South Africa. Wonderful games, a lot of surprises. This half-con is a very good one and I support of course the Super Eagles until they win the Cup.”
