ALEXANDRIA – Super Eagles head coach says Nigeria’s quarterfinal showdown against South Africa in the ongoing 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt will be “very, very difficult”.
South Africa’s Bayana Bayana stunned hosts Egypt 1-0 at the Cairo International Stadium on Saturday to set up a quarter-final tie against Nigeria who had earlier beaten defending champions, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon to progress to the quarterfinals.
Wednesday’s quarterfinal pits the two countries who are very familiar with each other with both having qualified from the 2019 AFCON from Group E of the qualifiers.
Nigeria failed to score a win over South Africa over two legs in the qualifying series with Bafana Bafana stunning the Super Eagles 2-0 in Uyo in the very first qualifying game before holding the Super Eagles to a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg in the return leg.
That loss in Uyo, Rohr says, shows the South Africans to be very dangerous opponents and coupled with their impressive display in throwing The Pharaohs of Egypt out of the tournament, Rohr insists that his team must prepare very well to progress to the semifinal at the expense of South Africa when both teams play at the Cairo International Stadium on Wednesday.
“We saw them play tonight, they played so well against Egypt so it will be very, very difficult,” Rohr said about quarterfinals opponents South Africa.
“They beat us also in Uyo, so we know that is not easy, we know them very well, we played a good draw in Johannesburg for the qualification, we even deserved to win because of the two goals of Musa that were cancelled even though they were not offside.
“That’s why we have to work hard to prepare well for this very tough game against South Africa.”
