AFCON qualifiers: I’m not under pressure to field players –Rohr

Super Eagles Manager, Gernot Rohr, has said that he is not under pressure to field players for  Saturday’s AFCON qualifiers between his team and the Bafana Bafana of South Africa.

The Eagles will play South Africa in the first match of the group E slated for Saturday at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium.

The coach who was fielding questions from sport journalistsThursday during a pre-match briefing held at Le’ Meridian Hotel and Gold Resort, Uyo said he worked independently with his assistants.

He said, “Nobody  tells me how to work, I work independently with my assistants. There is no pressure on me to field any players.

“We have good players from Nigeria in this team, I have some fine players.

“We have good players who can play well for this country at any time”.

He said that as a professional he monitored the progress of players in their respective clubs and watched video clips of players’ performances.

According to him, nobody gave him directives on how to coach, adding that he was satisfied with the selection made so far with the assistant of his technical team.

“No pressure on me, the team is open to all good players from Nigeria,” the coach said.

Rohr who acknowledged that the South African team was a good side, however, assured that with the crop of players in the Eagles team they would be able to overpower the South Africans on Saturday.

He said that his squad was a blend of young talented players who were ready to redeem themselves against the South Africans whose last game games in Uyo denied the ticket in the last AFCON competition.

Eagle’s stand-in captain, Ogenyi Onazi, said the objective of the team was to win the game and go for AFCON competition and the World Cup.

“We want to do our own and make sure we win the match on Saturday”, Onazi said.

He solicited that support and prayers of Nigerian adding that with prayers they would overcome

“Definitely we need the prayers of all Nigerians. We just want to let them know that it is not going to be easy.

“We need your support, you should come out and support us to make sure we get the three points on Saturday,” Onazi appealed.

In his comment, an Akwa United FC player, Alhassan Ibrahim, who is one of home based players in the team, said that he was excited for the national team.

Ibrahim said that it was an honour for him to be selected to feature for Nigeria at the national level out of the three players invited by the coach.

He lauded the cooperation he enjoyed from the experienced since the joined Eagles training camp in Corsica and Paris.