‘He needs time’ — Rohr defends Ighalo’s performance against Cape Verde

Gernot Rohr, Super Eagles head coach, has reacted to the criticism that trailed Odion Ighalo’s performance against Cape Verde in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

The 1-1 draw on Tuesday night at the Teslim Balogun Stadium was Ighalo’s first game for Nigeria since he announced his retirement from the Super Eagles in 2019.

The former Manchester United striker had attracted a wave of backlash on social media platforms after the match while TheCable rated his performance a woeful 3/10.

In his reaction to the criticism, Rohr, while defending Ighalo, said “a little patience” is needed to allow the ex-Watford player to find his blend with the Super Eagles once again after two years of absence.

“We need a little patience with Ighalo. He was not with us for more than one year, and we need time to find harmony, and I think he did some interesting things with Osimhen, who will grow and learn a lot,” the Franco-German added.

Rohr also described the draw as a victory, admitting that the Cape Verdeans “are a good technical team.”

“First of all, a draw can be like a victory, for today because we wanted to qualify and knew that a draw means qualification. It was not an easy game because Cape Verde are a good technical team, and they scored at the moment. We believed we had the match in our hands,” he said.

“But we missed a lot of chances in the first half especially, we deserve to score a second goal, but it didn’t come, so we had to defend, and the players did it well.

“Now for the AFCON, we can prepare. Today was like a final, very special game so what we ask for is little patience. Give us a little time to work on the two of them, then the goals will come again.”

Nigeria finished top of Group C with 13 points, joining Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, and DR Congo in the final phase of qualifiers.