Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Gernot Rohr, on Saturday said the team’s 0-2 loss to Croatia in their opening match of Russia 2018 was due to “many mistakes”.
Rohr, while speaking at the post-match conference of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group D fixture, said he and his players were aware they made some important mistakes during the game.
“We know we made some mistakes, too many important mistakes, and it is clear that we need to get better in order to move on,” the coach said.
He disclosed that the entire team was disappointed at the result, adding that they needed to work on being professional with the set-pieces.
“Our organisation was good, that is clear just as the tactics were not wrong, but we need to be more professional in the way we take the set-pieces. We need to be better before our next game,” he added.
Rohr, who admitted that the loss had made their task more herculean, said team Captain, Mikel Obi’s performance in the game was satisfactory just as he equally praised the defenders.
“Mikel has since I took over always been playing the way we deployed him today, and this has yielded results for us.
“But, he couldn’t have done better than he did today, because of the quality of those he was playing against.
“He had Ivan Rakitic of FC Barcelona and Luka Modric of Real Madrid playing against him, and they are of good quality and playing for clubs bigger than that of Mikel who plays in China. So, he really did well,” he said.
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