The Super Eagles technical adviser, Gernot Rohr has warned that the task of picking the group B African ticket for the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup could be difficult and poses a serious challenge to him and the players.
Rohr maintained that Nigeria is not the favourite to pick the group’s ticket ahead of stronger countries like Algeria and Cameroon, even as he promised to do his best with the players to ensure that the Eagles qualify for the World Cup.
The former coach of Gabon and Burkina Faso national teams also regretted that the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for two consecutive Africa Cup of Nation finals have lowered the confidence of the players ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.
Rohr, who singled out Algeria and Cameroon as the group’s favourites, however, expressed his readiness to battle the two countries for the group’s lone ticket.
It is a very big challenge and I accept it. I know that it will be difficult but I believe that we can succeed. The challenge is to go to Russia. We did a step with the first match which was like a training game and the victory was good. It shows that they can do it. We have seen other good teams in our group like Algeria and Cameroon.
Actually Nigeria is no longer ranked top in Africa. I don’t know, they are not even in the top 10 but ranked 16 in Africa. So they are not the favourites. The favourites are Algeria or even Cameroon. Nigeria was not at the last AFCON and will not be going to the next one, but we will go to the World Cup,” he assured.
