Draw, Win or Lose, Nigeria has already qualified for the 2018 Mundial in Russia. All the same, the handlers of Nigeria’s senior soccer squad, the Super Eagles, are worried about the absence of six key members of the team hit by injuries, The Head Coach of the Algerian squad, Rabah Madjer, has insisted that his wards will enter the pitch today clearly looking for victory.
Madjer announced at a news conference ahead of the last Group B Russia 2018 game in Constantine that Algeria which will not be in Russia next summer, will take the match seriously. “The match against Nigeria is not a friendly, to me this is the first match of the qualifiers for next year’s World Cup,” Madjer declared at the news briefing.
The former Algerian World Cup star admitted that the game against Nigeria presents his squad the chance to return the North African team to winning ways. “Our team is in crisis, it has been a difficult period for the players and that is why we have to get back to winning matches immediately (defeating Nigeria),” stressed Madjer.
The Algeria coach picked Arsenal player, Alex Iwobi, as the star of the Super Eagles after he studied several videos of the Nigerian team.
Madjer also identified Iwobi as the one player that Coach Gernot Rohr does not have a replacement for after studying videos of the Eagles.
Rohr is going into the last World Cup qualifier unbeaten in the series. The Franco-German coach picked the ticket to the Mundial with this Algerian game to spare. But today, the Eagles gaffer is going to be without six players who pulled out of the trip to North Africa due to injury.
Turkey-based midfielder, Mikel Agu, was the latest injury casualty to hit the team after Victor Moses, Moses Simon, Ogenyi Onazi, Odion Ighalo and Elderson Echiejile were ruled out of the match as well as a friendly against Argentina four days later.
“We have six injuries, so it means six changes at least in this game,” Rohr said yesterday. “But we hope to do a good game. We play to make a good game with good result. It’s also an opportunity to see those players who did not play so much during the qualifiers,” he noted.
Rohr also admitted that his Algerian counterpart will be aiming to beat Eagles to return his team to reckoning. “They have changed coaches, they are yet to win at home (in the qualifiers), so they will be very aggressive, they have one of the best African players (Riyad) Mahrez and also (Islam) Slimani. It will be interesting to see how some of the players will do in in our team,” concludes the Super Eagles gaffer who is expected to lead his wards to Constantine this afternoon from the team’s Rabat, Morocco camp.
