Super Eagles head coach, Gernot Rohr has blamed the Video Assistant Referee, VAR, system, after his team’s win 2-1 over South Africa at the Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday.
Rohr pointed out that the time taken to confirm South Africa’s goal unsettled his team.
The VAR system was introduced at the quarterfinal stage of the tournament and is being used in the competition for the first time.
VAR made its first significant intervention in the match when it overruled a lineman’s decision to disallow Bongani Zungu’s goal for offside.
“For five minutes we had to wait, goal or no goal, and that was hard for my team,” the German told reporters.
“The second goal did not go in for us and then you have seen this free kick, and this VAR decision – you never know what can happen with VAR on a free kick.
“Now we are mentally strong and we were able to come back,” he said.
The German coach recalled when Nigeria were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in Uyo in a qualifier for the tournament two years ago.
“We had a young team but this team continued to work and this result perhaps helped us to beat in the next game Cameroon, who were African champions, 4-0 in the same stadium (in a World Cup qualifier), so we could learn from this match,” he added.
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