Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr says he is not looking to avoid any country and is hoping to get either France or Germany.

The Super Eagles have been placed in Pot 4, which contains all the lowest-ranked teams from the October FIFA ranking, while both France and Germany are seeded in Pot 1 alongside the highest-ranked teams.

The seeding has left Nigeria facing the prospect of being drawn against some tough opposition, but the German says that is of little concern to him.

“First, we are in Pot 4 so we are not favourites,” he told reporters. “That means we will be last.

“I want to play Germany because I am half German, so it will be a pleasure for me to play Germany.

It will also be a big pleasure to play France because I have a lot of friends there, and it is a pleasure to see friends and play against them.”

Those two aside, there are still some scary prospects between pots one to three, but the German says he is not looking to avoid anyone.

“They are all good,” Rohr added. “They are all supposed to be better than us.

“The qualifiers were difficult and even if we are not favourites against the big teams, we showed that we can do some good things when we played against Argentina, so no complex.

“We believe that we have a chance to do very well and make a surprise. We will stay humble and believe, but we know that it will be very difficult.”

Rohr leads a team to Russia which is one of the youngest — if not the youngest — of the 32 qualified countries, and it’s a statistic he is immensely proud of.

“I saw that we have the youngest team out of the 32, and that is a good thing and I am proud of it. Football will not finish after Russia, and it is important to have a team that will play for 10 years and more and improve all the time.”

ESPN