Head coach of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has admitted that Moses Simon started ahead of Samuel Chukwueze in their 3-2 win over Cameroon on Saturday, because he has better defensive qualities.
Chukwueze was summoned from the bench with the score at 2-1 and impacted the outcome of the match in Alexandria.
The Villarreal winger’s impressive cameo led to fans and pundits calling for Rohr to start him more. And he was asked by reporters after the game why he preferred Simon.
“The question is easy to answer, you know when you have some offensive players like Oyongo, the left-back from Cameroon, who is coming forward all the time and you have an offensive strong player like Chukwueze but defensively not so good like Simon Moses, who plays in his club a more defensive position because they play 3-5-2.
“He’s playing on the right or the left side, so we decided to start like this to have stability in the team and to bring in Chukwueze in the good moment. He came in after 16 minutes in the second half.
“I don’t believe that it changed the result but it helped us to win and to score the two goals,” Rohr replied.
The Super Eagles will now face South Africa in the quarter-final on Wednesday, July 10.
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