Gernot Rohr hails Super Eagles reaction against Central African Republic

The Super Eagles line up for photo ops before their recent World Cup qualifier against Central African Republic. (Photo credit: GOAL)

Super Eagles Coach Gernot Rohr has hailed Nigeria’s 2-0 victory over the Central African Republic in Sunday’s 2022 World Cup qualification match, stating that it was "a good reaction" from his men.

The Super Eagles fell to a 1-0 loss at home to the Wild Beasts in the reverse fixture on Thursday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, a first defeat in World Cup qualifiers since June 19, 2004, against Angola.

But on Sunday, they avenged that setback against Raoul Savoy’s men, with Leon Balogun and Victor Osimhen finding the net at the Japoma Stadium, Cameroon to cement Nigeria’s place at their top of their group.

Balogun put the 2013 African kings ahead in the 29th minute before the Napoli star doubled the advantage on the stroke of half-time, having been teed up by William Troost-Ekong.

After the final whistle, Rohr was full of praise for his team, while expressing relief that his men were able to come away with a victory.

“It was a good reaction from my team, we lost the other day – very unlucky at the very last minute,” the German tactician told NFF media.

“Everybody wanted to take revenge and they did it very well although we could not score a third or fourth goal.

“We changed the system and played three [defenders] at the back which helped us as well as the leadership of [Ahmed] Musa to win this game.

“It is not easy to play the Central African Republic. They committed a lot of fouls but fortunately, we didn’t have any big injuries.

“Now we can prepare for the next game in November and hope that everything would be fine at the end of the day.”

Thanks to this win, Nigeria remain at the summit of Group C with nine points from four matches and a win in their next game guarantees passage to the next

They are guests of Liberia on November 11 and victory over the Lone Star will hand Nigeria a place in the third round – where Africa’s five representatives to Qatar will be decided.

The Super Eagles’ last participation at the global football showpiece was in 2018 (Russia). There, they crashed out in the first round after failing to qualify from Group D that also included Argentina, Croatia and Iceland.