Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr believes his Super Eagles side is at the 2018 Fifa World Cup to fill the West African nation with pride.
The Super Eagles face an epic contest against Croatia in their first Group D match at Kaliningrad Stadium. Kickoff is at 7pm.
Just before the team left Austria, Coach Rohr summed up the gains #SoarSuperEagles #Team9jaStrong pic.twitter.com/uf8kheMkM1
— The NFF 🇳🇬 (@thenff) June 12, 2018
Rohr, speaking to reporters ahead of the their World Cup opener, believes it will be a tough encounter for his charges but they are ready to secure victory.
“We know this pressure. We have this all the time. We had it in qualifiers. I’m sure we’ll make Nigerians happy. We have such a young team, maybe this World Cup is too soon for them.
“We have the youngest squad, so maybe 2022 will be their World Cup. We want to make Nigerian people happy, it’s not only the results, it’s the attitude and the way we play.
“Football must also bring values to this big country. It will be a great opportunity for Russian people and Nigerians to show the good values we share.”
🇭🇷🆚🇳🇬
It's a #WorldCup matchday!#BeProud #CRONGA #FlamingPride #Family #Vatreni🔥 pic.twitter.com/3qLRKF2VKQ— HNS (@HNS_CFF) June 16, 2018
The German-born gaffer is unfazed by the quality of the Croatians and despite the Vatreni placed 20th on the recent Fifa rankings, Rohr is positive his lads will succeed.
“It’s always exciting to play for the first time against a country. We are not the favourite of this group, Croatia are the favourite of this game.”
“They are much higher than us in the FIFA rankings. We are supposed to finish last in this group according to the FIFA ranking. We are humble, modest, and ambitious, and we want to qualify, so we have to get a good result tomorrow.”
Matchday 1 was ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
Matchday 2 was 🔥🔥🔥What does Matchday 3 have in store for us? 🤔#WorldCup pic.twitter.com/bx63M29HJd
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 16, 2018
The 64-year-old added that his side’s camping in Austria and Essentuki (Russia) offers them a good feel of the environment ahead of the tourney.
“We are excited to play this World Cup in this wonderful country. We had two camps, one in Austria in very good conditions, and then we found a wonderful place in Essentuki where we had a very warm welcome. We are very good there,” he added.
Nigeria and Croatia are joined in Group D by Argentina and Iceland.
