Gernot Rohr warns Super Eagles stars what they must not do in Seychelles ahead of their AFCON 2019 qualifiers
- Gernot Rohr has warned his squad members of the importance of Nigeria's 2019 AFCON tie on Saturday’
- The Super Eagles tackle Pirates of Seychelles at the Stade Linite in a match day 2 showdown
- Rohr insists the players are not holidaying and must be on top of their game on Saturday
Super Eagles Franco-German tactician Gernot Rohr has taken time out of the team’s preparations for Saturday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying showdown Pirates of Seychelles to open up on their mission when they face the home side at the Stade Linite.
Speaking moments after the team’s training session at the match venue on Thursday morning, the football tactician stressed that players and officials are quite aware of the crucial nature of Saturday evening’s showdown ahead of the next summer’s AFCON in Cameroon.
“Everyone realizes the importance of this match. We are currently number three in our group and that position does not befit Super Eagles of Nigeria. It is not good for us because it is outside the qualification range.
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“The players know this. They know that on Saturday they have to show character to put our campaign back on track with a good result,” the Franco-German tactician was quoted as saying by thenff.com,
Speaking further, Rohr cautioned all 21 players available for the match that they are not on holiday despite Seychelles being a leading tourist destination for various fun seekers.
“We are not here on vacation. We are here for serious business.
“We have a young, ambitious team and Nigeria has a better pedigree in the game of football than Seychelles. But we must not under –rate them in any way or take things for granted.
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“The World Cup is behind us now, but we must allow the lessons we learnt in Russia to make us better and more efficient in our approach. The Cup of Nations is the focus now and we must get a good result on Saturday to get our campaign back, and then we can now look ahead with determination to win the remaining matches in our group to qualify easily for the championship.”
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously had reported that Super Eagles have suffered a big blow days to the dicey Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series Match-day 2 against Seychelles on Saturday, September 8.
Reports coming out of the Nigeria Football Federation revealed that the Gernot Rohr tutored-side will miss the services of three important squad members, Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina and William Troost-Ekong as they are currently down with various degree of injury ahead of the Eagles Pirates cracker.
Nigeria battle Seychelles away from home on Saturday and will be seeking an outright victory to reverse the Eagles chances of making it to Cameroon 2019 after losing to South Africa's Bafana Bafana in Match-day 1.
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Source: Naija.ng