The chances of the Super Eagles of Nigeria lifting next year Africa Cup of Nations has been played down by coach of the team Gernot Rohr in the wake of their qualification for the tournament for the first time in six years.
Nigeria qualified for the tournament with a game to spare courtesy of their 1-1 draw against South Africa on Saturday and that sparked talks about the chances of the team winning the championship in Cameroon next year.
The last time the Super Eagles campaigned at the Africa soccer showpiece, they ended up lifting the tropy thanks to a lone goal scored by Sunday Mba in the final game against Burkina Faso in 2013 when South Africa hosted the tournament.
Rohr was asked about the chances of the present Nigerian team lifting the trophy and the Franco-German coach sounded coy although he admitted that they stand a chance of lifting the trophy than they did when they went to the World Cup in Russia.
“It’s not the time to talk about that, we have a very good young team which need to improve and it is very long time around seven months to spend before the next AFCON but I think we learnt a lot already during the World Cup and now with the new young players we have and some old players coming back ‎like Ighalo”, Rohr said at the post match conference of Saturday’s game against South Africa.
” The players have to be fit to get a chance to play for us. When we go to the AFCON like every tournament you’re expected to win. Even when we went to the World Cup the president of Nigeria expected us to win it. The chance to win the AFCON is however bigger”.
