Gernot Rohr’s men bowed to the Indomitable Lions in Friday’s friendly, albeit, the veteran tactician feels there is nothing to fret about
Nigeria’s defeat to Cameroon in Friday’s international friendly is nothing to lose sleep over, according to coach Henry Makinwa.
Although the Super Eagles put up an imposing display against the Indomitable Lions, they bowed 1-0 at the Wiener Neustadt Stadium.
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s 37th minute encounter separated both teams in the affair that saw Abraham Marcus, Valentine Ozornwafor and Terem Moffi make their international debuts.
The loss has continued to generate contrasting opinions from the football sphere, with some claiming Gernot Rohr’s men are off-guard for the Africa Cup of Nations slated for 2022.
Nonetheless, the former Abia Warriors and Katsina United handler claims there is nothing to worry about, picking out the positives against Toni Conceicao’s team instead.
“No cause for alarm because defeat is a possibility in football. Now that we ended up on the losing side, it should be taken as a loss as nothing more,” Makinwa told Goal.
“Before the game against Cameroon, it was obvious that Nigeria could not use all their players due to injuries, logistic reasons and maybe restrictions on travelling due to Covid-19.”
On Tuesday, both teams lock horns again in the second leg of June’s international friendlies.
When asked about the grey areas the Nigerian technical crew should correct ahead of the encounter, the former Vitoria Setubal and Rapid Bucuresti forward says all necessary correction lies on the table of Eagles’ German handler.
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“The changes to be made are known only to the head coach because he knows exactly what went wrong [in the first leg] and the immediate solution,” he continued.
“People can speculate from outside, but the stakeholders know what the next step is.
“All I want to implore Nigerians to do is keep supporting the boys before, during and after the next game. Up Super Eagles!”
Before taking on Cape Verde and Liberia in September’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the West Africans are billed to take on Mexico at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 3.
The last meeting between the two countries was in a friendly match en route to the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.
After 90 minutes of entertaining action, the Super Eagles and El Tri settled for a 0-0 draw at the Georgia Dome, with goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa making a couple of fine saves to deny Stephen Keshi’s men.
