Croatia coach, Zlatko Dalic, has commented on the Super Eagles’ 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo in an international friendly game played on Monday in Port Harcourt.
William Ekong scored for Nigeria in the 15th minute of the first half while Mpoku Paul-Jose equalized for the Congolese with a penalty in the 77th minute.
According to Dalic, Gernot Rohr’s men are weak in defense and are strong in the midfield and attack.
Dalic, however, said that his team can exploit the three times African champions’ defensive frailty when both nations clash in their 2018 World Cup opener on June 16, before facing Iceland and Argentina in Russia.
Rohr’s side usually play a four-man defense but did not start with their first-choice fullbacks, Abdullahi Shehu and Brian Idowu for the clash against the Leopards and Dalić took that into account while giving his verdict on the team.
”There was a mixed team, Simon Moses was injured. They are terribly strong out of the box, in the launching of the attack, fast, but their weak point is the defense phase. We’ll see what we can do about it,” Dalic told Sportske Novosti.
”Surely, they are not better than us, in any case, we just have to prepare well.”
He added, ”We will score a goal, but we must be very careful and keep the defensive shape.
“The Nigerians are dangerous from the position and punish you if you are weakly closed and go away with a lot of players ahead.”
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