Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says the playing surface of the synthetic pitch in Cape Verde where they will play is better than the one they trained on in Lagos.
Ahead of today’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Nigerian team trained at the Legacy football pitch in Lagos to have a taste of what it takes to play on synthetic surface as the game will be played on it.
Yesterday after training the coach , who is without a host of players revealed he will pick from the 19 players available and hopefully get the result they aim for. He also spoke on handing debut to some players.
The coach also showed his knowledge of today’s opponent by explaining how they play and the players his team need to be wary about as they aim to make it two wins out of the first two games of the qualifiers.
On Playing On Synthetic Pitch:
“It’s a different pitch because and we are not used to playing on a synthetic pitch, some of our players have played on this pitch before when they were playing in Nigeria but they are now in Europe.
“We train in Lagos on a synthetic pitch, but this one is softer and this is better to play on. We have to change the team, we have only 19 players available for this game and we have some problems and it’s a challenge.
Faith In New Players:
“I trust these boys that will play for the first time for the Super Eagles, Cape Verde wants to win because they drew their first game. We have been preparing since we are in Lagos, but Cape Verde had more days to recover. It will be a physical challenge, but we will be ready.”
On Cape Verde tactics:
“They like to play quickly in the attack, they have wonderful players like Mendes, they have players in France and they have offensive players. They like to set up with three at the back and we know they like to defend, but we have our idea and we have our tactics to score goals and win the game. I know it won’t be easy with our situation, but we are a super commando, and we have to show our fighting spirit.
