Result not important in Super Eagles’ defeat to Cameroon — Rohr

GERNOT Rohr has declared that there were more important takeaways from the Super Eagles’ defeat to the Indomitable Lions than the result.

Cameroon claimed their first victory in 21 years over Nigeria on Friday night, beating Rohr’s team 1-0 in a friendly in Vienna, Austria through Zambo Anguissa’s first-half strike.

Despite the bitter rivalry between the two neighbours, Rohr dismissed the defeat, focusing on what he terms more important things.

“The most important thing is not the result because it was just a test match,” Rohr told the Super Eagles media team. “It was interesting to see some new players because we had to manage the situation and we did well, I think we had 17 shots on goal while Cameroon only had three. They had only one on target which was the goal and we had six on target.

“Like I said, the result is not the most important thing in a friendly, the most important thing is to learn, to see some interesting things, to test some new players and to see what we want to do in September for the World Cup qualifiers.”

The Super Eagles had more possession and dominated for most of the match but they lacked cutting edge, as Rohr admitted.

He added: “Our domination was not good enough because we had to score in the beginning of the game but we didn’t and when you don’t score you get punished.

“I saw interesting things, we had good integration of some new players, three of them played for the first time.”

After the match, the Super Eagles squad became even more depleted, with Rohr revealing that two players picked up injuries.

Prior to the match, several key players had withdrawn due to injuries, including Victor Osimhen, Joe Aribo and Zaidu Sanusi.

“We lost two players to injury and it will be difficult for the second game because (William) Troost-Ekong and (Jamilu) Collins are out and now we have to manage the difficult situation. But it is an opportunity to play with three defenders and to change a little bit with the system and try something different that’s why we are happy to have the second game.”

Rohr will use the second game against Cameroon on Tuesday to further assess his new players Terem Moffi, Marcus Abraham and Valentine Ozonwafor as well as others ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in September.

“These test matches are made to give chances to other players,” Rohr explained.

“Of course I will love to play with my best team, prepare them for the World Cup qualifiers in the same conditions but it was not possible because too many players could not come so it was an opportunity to see Moffi.

He did well, Olayinka did well on the right side and we saw Marcus who was also good and Valentine who came in for Troost-Ekong in the end.

“We will see in the next game if they can be in our 23-man list, now there will be competition and it’s good to give them the chance and all the time we are happy to have young players.”