Solape Lawal-Solarin
Gerhot Rohr was excited and relieved to see Nigeria secure a vital draw away to South Africa as ‘it was an important draw that looks like a victory”.
The Super Eagles secured their ticket to next year AFCON in Cameroon away at the FNB stadium yesterday with a game in hand but, would have loved to pay their host ‘back in their own coin’ after they lost the first fixture at home by 2-0.
However, they couldn’t as Samuel Kalu’s fifth minute deflected cross was wiped out by Mothiba’s 33rd minute tap-in after a Percy Tau fine assist to ensure both sides shared the spoil at the end of 90 minutes with the Nigerians cursing their luck, having had two clean goals wrongfully disallowed as offside.
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And despite being at the wrongful end of dreadful calls, Rohr was still elated at the outcome of events at the FNB.
“It was a good result. I am happy with the draw because it tastes like victory. We knew it would be tough, we could see the South Africans wanted a win however, we did well to score early.
When asked whether he played for a draw, the Franco-german replied: No, I wanted us to win but, then we felt comfortable with the scoreline at 1-1, “why should i take risks?” is ok and am happy with the result.
Nigeria joins Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Madagascar, Senegal and host, Cameroon as the race for for continental glory hots up.