Rohr: Nigeria could have won AFCON 2017

Head coach of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has said that the team could have won the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon if they qualified.


Cameroon emerged champions at the tournament, after defeating Egypt in the final played in Libreville, but Rohr feels Nigeria has what it takes to have clinched gold.

“The quality of our team is good and if we were at the Cup of Nations, we would have stood a chance of winning it. We have a young team, our team is motivated,” he said.

Speaking ahead of the 2018 World Cup qualifying double-header against Cameroon later in the year, Rohr said: “When we win the next game in Cameroon, it will be very okay for us to be in Russia. I am always confident and I think we have a good team.

“Cameroon are a very good team now with different players; of course they are not so young when you look at the average age of their players which is 26, the youngest ones being Bassogog and the goalkeeper, so the other ones are not so young.

“We are a younger team, we have an experienced captain who now plays in China, we will have, I hope so, two new players who will help us when we get to play them, we’ll see very interesting games against Cameroon because they know they must beat us or at least a draw to stand a chance of going to Russia.”