Coach rohr now hero of the people in nigeria
His overjoyed players carried coach gernot rohr on their shoulders through godswill akpabio stadium, tossing him into the air over and over again with exuberance.
When the german soccer coach literally became the national hero of over 180 million people, even nigeria's president muhammadu buhari congratulated him on his "sublime victory". The super eagles' 1-0 (0-0) win over zambia to qualify for the world cup was like "a 57th birthday present" for the head of state. Anniversary of independence. I join the cheers of millions of nigerians, together with the team and the coaching staff".
At the age of 64, mannheim-born globetrotter rohr will be traveling with nigeria to the world cup next year. The francophile will turn 65 at the end of june 2018. After stints in niger, gabon and burkina faso, rohr took over the national team of the west african country in august 2016. "This is not over yet," he told reporters after the triumph. "We have to prepare now to play a good world cup."
For the sixth time, the "super eagles" appear in the final round of a soccer world cup – this time they are the first african team to book their ticket. "Of course we had pressure, but the players were physically and mentally strong," praised rohr after a "difficult game" in uyo in southern nigeria. Zambia was by no means underestimated, "because we saw on video what they did twice against algeria and against cameroon.
Arsenal's alex iwobi, who had already scored in the first leg, scored in the 73rd minute. Golden goal in the 57th minute for the three-time african champions, who missed a number of high-caliber chances. But in the end, only victory paid: with 13 points, nigeria is clearly ahead of zambia and decided the qualifying group B in africa early for itself.
Nigeria had qualified for a world cup for the first time in 1994 and then in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010. Three times the team made it to the eighth finals. The "super-adlers" did best in the USA in 1994, coming in ninth place.
In the evening, egypt also lost its ticket to the world cup for the third time. Argentine coach hector cúper's team secured qualification with a late 2-1 (0-0) win over the democratic republic of congo. Egypt is back in the final round for the first time since 1990 in italy.
On the other hand, the world cup dream was shattered on saturday for gabon – and thus also for BVB goalkeeper pierre-emerick aubameyang. His team lost 0:3 against the new table leader morocco and has no more chance of the world cup ticket. The hero of the evening was khalid boutaib, who scored a triple (38./56./72. The first goal of the game was scored in the first minute with a header, a left-footed shot and a right-footed shot.
Even before the game, "auba" had a bad gut feeling. "Helped the team and coaching staff with incredible stomach pain on match day," tweeted the dortmund man. "Oh no, that's tough. What a mysterious orange juice this morning."