Africa Nations Cup knockout games is starting and Nigeria will have to square it out against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon on Saturday, the cracker may however not be a show of muscle and strength as many may readily conceived.
It is expect to be a tough cracker to untie the victory knowing what a loss will mean to either of the foes, yet the Super Eagles Manager Gernot Rohr will not be perturbed as he said the three-times African Champions will approach the match with “triumph tactics and not with show-off strength”.
Cameroon are the defending champion of the biennial championship and have head-head edge with history of defeating the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1984, 1988 and 2000, but most painful for the Nigeria national team was that agonizing penalty shoot-out loss in front of home fans at the National Stadium, Lagos on 13th February 2000.
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Nigeria and Cameroon share eight African titles between them. While the Indomitable Lions have won five times (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002 and 2017), Nigeria were champions in 1980, 1994 and 2013.
Yet, the German Eagles handler believes Eagles have advantage over their ache rival and would do great exploit to make the best out the team by making his cool and calm tactics to rub-off on his players in the knockout cracker at the weekend.
Rohr explained that his side’s advantage over the defending champions was that Nigeria played on Sunday while Cameroon played on Tuesday. The German tactician also said that he will start his best eleven against Cameroon in order to make Nigerians proud.
He said, “its now the tournament is starting for us.. all the fixtures are very difficult games for everybody even Egypt and of-course for us (Nigeria) likewise Cameroon.
“We had six points in the group stage, they had only five. They scored only two goals like we scored. So i see a very tough game with a very small difference in the score…
“We will try to have advantage physically and also mentally through our cool and calm tactics because everybody wants to do very well now.”
According to the 59-year-old technical handler, the Super Eagles will shake off the avoidable 2-0 loss to Madagascar with a maximum victory with slim goal margin.
He said, “Everybody in the team wants to do well especially after the disappointment against Madagascar. We want to player new players as well to put them in the rhythm of the competition as well. But, the first team as to start to do the best and make Nigeria proud.”