Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, has tagged his team the underdog of Group D ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and has likened the clash against Argentina to be a “final”.
Nigeria have been drawn against Argentina, Croatia and Iceland all of whom rank higher the the African side in the FIFA ranking.
Reacting to the draw done on Friday in Moscow, Rohr expressed his expectations from the three sides and also hinted at his world cup.
The German Coach name dropped opponents he would like to play against in friendlies as conditioning for his players.
Group D 😁
Interactive Team Profiles 👇
🇦🇷Argentina – https://t.co/QYSdkbi3E2
🇮🇸Iceland – https://t.co/6YMv9acdLI
🇭🇷Croatia – https://t.co/OXjmAcY4y8
🇳🇬Nigeria – https://t.co/5SKP9GEbfU#WorldCupDraw pic.twitter.com/Y42TYRtITV— #WorldCupDraw 🏆 (@FIFAWorldCup) December 1, 2017
“We were in the last Pot, so we have three teams who are supposed to be better than us because they’re higher in the FIFA ranking. So what we have to do is to prepare well.
“Our first game is against Croatia so it’ll be interesting to have a good friendly for example against Serbia because they play similar football.
“Croatia qualified for the world cup in the last two games against Greece they won 4-1 and they played draw in the second game, so they will be a good team.”
“The second match will be in Volgograd or Saint Petersburg (Volgograd actually) I think. We go to the Northern part of Europe and we will play a very good team because it’s not easy to play this team also.”
“Argentina we know, we know that Argentina is a very good team. Normally, this we be more difficult now than in the friendly, because now they know how we play and we cannot surprise them like we did the last time and now they will play with Messi.”
“Iceland is a very good team also, very strong physically. They have the best fans of the Euros at the European Championships they did very well.
“It will be a very interesting group and perhaps the last game against Argentina we play in Volgograd (Saint Petersburg) will be like the final for qualification of our group.”
