Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr has issued another interpretation of his team’s World Cup outing, as he insists their performances against Iceland and Argentina give him cause to be hopeful of a better future ahead.
Though many Nigerians would take the Eagles’ 2-0 win against Iceland in their second group match at Russia 2018 as the only joy at the World Cup, Rohr added that being able to scare Argentina till late in their second match is also worth celebrating.
With that in mind, the Franco-German gaffer is now looking toward a better further with the Eagles, starting with the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and then Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Rohr said he is already focusing on Nigeria’s Nations Cup qualifiers against Seychelles in September, for which he believes his young team have learnt a lot of lessons from Russia that will help them moving forward.
He stressed that he has nothing to regret about Nigeria’s inability to go beyond the group stage in Russia and added that he never thought of quitting the job, as he believes the team can still do well in subsequent competitions.
“When you have a team playing this good, beating Iceland who are ranked 20 in the world, while we are 49, a team that had Argentina who are number six in the world close to a knockout, who would think of resigning from this team?
“You would need to question your own work. No, it’s out of the question for me right now. Our project is also focused on the 2018 AFCON as well as the next World Cup.
“These are targets; we have players aged 19, 21 and 22 who are all first eleven, and we can be positive and believe that they will improve in the future,” Rohr submitted.
