Nigeria Vs Cameroon: Super Eagles kick off preparations for 2022 World Cup qualifiers with friendly

Instead of allowing his players to jet off to luxury destinations worldwide to let their hair down, Gernot Rohr and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) planned a friendly game to keep his players busy.

There have been some snags; 11 players from the original squad for the friendly have pulled out while Pulse learned some discontent among the team over unpaid wages and allowances.

Despite those drawbacks, Rohr has called up some other players to prepare for the games.

“We want to win also and test some players. A lot of the players are not here. 11 players could not come but we use this opportunity to see other players to give them a chance to play and to get the result I hope,” Rohr said in an interview with Super Eagles media officer.

It might be termed a friendly game, but any game against Cameroon is far from that. Aside from the storied rivalry between the two countries, Cameroon will avoid another defeat to Nigeria due to recent results.

In recent years Nigeria have come out tops, finishing above their West African counterparts in Group B of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers after a 4-0 win at home and 1-1 draw away in Yaounde, which sealed qualification to the World Cup.

“We have Cameroon, it’s one of the best teams in Africa, the three games against Cameroon, we took them out of the World Cup and we put them out of the AFCON so they want to take revenge,” Rohr said.

“It ‘s going to be a difficult game, we have played against them in the last couple of years and it has been a difficult opponent,” Super Eagles defender William Troost-Ekong said.

“It’s going to be a team that wants to get revenge because we knocked them out at the World Cup and also at the AFCON, we did the same thing.”

Rohr is, however not losing sight of the purpose of this friendly game against Cameroon, which is to prepare his side for the task ahead.

“Now in June we have the last preparation then at the end of June the AFCON and in September, October , November, World Cup qualifiers, so this is the last preparation game for the World Cup qualifiers,” the Super Eagles boss said.

“All the players here want to do well to be in the 23 squad for the qualifiers.”