AFCON Qualifiers: Gernot Rohr reveals he has done his homework ahead of Nigeria vs Sierra Leone

Ahead of Friday’s AFCON 2021 qualification fixture in Benin City against Sierra Leone, Nigeria’s Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has revealed he has a well-articulated analysis of the West African team.

Rohr says he will approach the game with the utmost respect while refusing to label the Leone Stars a small footballing nation.

He also spoke highly of the Sierra Leonean players drawn from the Championship, Segunda Division B, the Belgian Pro League, Major League Soccer amongst others.

“It is not a small team, we have to stay humble, we have to recognise that all the teams now are well prepared,” said Rohr at Thursday’s press conference.

“They have players playing very well, in the USA for example Kei Kamara, he’s a great player, they have players in Switzerland, Spain and big football countries so we really cannot underrate.

“We are at home without the 12th man so we have to be strong in our communication, in our passion and it won’t be easy because we didn’t play here in these African conditions for a long time - one year now.

“The players are coming back from Europe, the cold weather to the hot weather here, African conditions, long traveling, it’s not easy to play again one year after.

“Don’t forget the particular circumstances we have at the moment, so we need to play simple football, we need to go straight on the goal, we would like to score a goal quickly if possible but sometimes we have to be patient, to stay calm if the goals are not coming quickly.”

The Super Eagles‘ video analyst informed Rohr that Sierra Leone’s strongest area was in their defence and also that two of their players’ standout attributes all round is height and physicality.

“They have a good defence, they are very strong physically, we know a lot about Sierra Leone because our staff prepared it a long time ago.

“We have the videos, I had to call the coach of Mauritania, Corentin Martins, he’s a friend, they played against them last month, he told me it’s a very good team.

“We know it will be a physical match, West African players often are strong physically, big height, they have six players more than 1.85m.”

The Franco-German tactician also acknowledged that the Leone Stars will be looking to adopt long ball tactics to try and frustrate the Super Eagles.

“They like to do long balls and to go on headers which is not our kind of football but we have to be ready for this challenge and I think we will even if the time is short.”

The Super Eagles have defeated Sierra Leone nine times in fourteen previous meetings, drawing two and losing two.