Rohr to drop two players today after being relatively satisfied with play despite 1-2 loss to England

SUPER Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr is to axe two players from his squad today after having decided on who will be his final World Cup 23 after yesterday's friendly against England that saw his team lose 1-2 at Wembley.

In a game of two halves yesterday, the Eagles got off to a woeful start, putting a very lacklustre performance during the first 45 minutes, allowing England to go 2-0 up before halftime. At the break, however, Rohr made four changes, switched from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 formation and saw an immediate transformation, enabling his team to pull a goal back through Alex Iwobi in the 47th minute.

After yesterday's game, the futures of Ogenyi Onazi and Joel Obi could be in doubt as they both had terrible games in midfield, gifting England the ball repeatedly. Their recklessness and constant loss of the ball through unforced errors, allowed Gary Cahill and Harry Kane to find the back of the net in the seventh and 39th minute respectively.

England started the game brightly forcing William Ekong to make an early block from Dele Alli, the Nigerian-born Tottenham playmaker, who was booed by the Super Eagles fans throughout the game for rejecting Nigeria. This early pressure paid off when Kieran Trippier let fly with a dangerous free-kick in the fifth minute, which goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, who put in another sterling performance successfully tipped away.

From the subsequent corner, however, Cahill rose unchallenged to head home the opener after Leon Balogun who may have curtailed him was off the pitch receiving treatment following a clash with Joel Obi when both of them went for the same ball. This morale booster put the wind in England's sails, enabling the Three Lions to step up the pressure further and they nearly got a second in the 12th minute, with Raheem Sterling putting the ball wide after being put through clean on goal.

After this, however, Nigeria appeared to regain some composure with skipper Mikel Obi and Iwobi coming into the game. In the 15h minute, Mikel put Iwobi clean through on goal but the Arsenal man was caught offside after making his run too early after the England defence had been carved open.

Nigeria's right-footed leftback Brian Idowu, who had a decent game made great block just a minute later to deny England a second chance. His constant tracking back to cover centreback Leon Balogun, who did not have one of his best games was an outstanding feature of the first half.

In the back four, Balogun and rightback Shehu Abdullahi appeared to be constantly caught out for pace as the England attack kept managing to get behind them. While this was going on though, the Nigerian attack started to enjoy some presence as Odion Ighalo had a shot on goal but saw it blocked by Cahill and in the 27th minute, Joel fired over the bar.

However, in the 38th minute, Ighalo, who fought a heroic lone battle upfront having been denied service, had another shot on target but saw it saved by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. This came just after Joel and Idowu nearly found a way to goal but ended up confusing themselves as well as the England defence after their dummies led to mix-up.

England, however, regrouped after this and in the 30th minute Sterling, who had a super game fired over the bar from close range. This fresh pressure brought dividends eight minutes later after the main culprit Onazi gifted England the ball again and Kane fired home from close range.

Uzoho, who has established himself as Nigeria's undisputed number one and a certain starter at the World Cup, got to the ball but did not time his dive properly, allowing the shot to canon off him and into the net. Had the Deportivo La Coruna youngster, who commanded his area with confidence yesterday, stayed on his feet for a few second later, he would have managed to deflect the ball to safety.

After going two down, Nigeria tried to rally and get something back before the break but Victor Moses' shot in the 44th minute was wild and flew high above the bar. Shortly afterwards, Italian referee Marco Guida brought the half to an end, allowing England to go into the break with a deserved two goal lead.

Clearly unhappy with what he saw during the first half, Rohr made four changes during the break, bring on Tyrone Ebuehi for Abdullahi, Ogene Etebo for Onazi, Kenneth Omeruo for Balogun and John Ogu for Joel. He also switched to a 3-5-2 formation, with Ogu playing in the back three for the first time alongside Ekong and Omeruo.

This clearly appeared to do the trick, as the back three gave the Eagles some solidity, Etebo held on to the ball better in midfield and Ebuehi blocked the constant leakages down the right flank. It was thus no surprise when in the 37th minute, the Eagles soared towards the England goal and Ighalo let fly with a cracker that came off the post but the rebound was clinically slotted home by Iwobi.

Now with the wind in their sails, the Eagles began pushing forward in search of an equaliser, with Omeruo coming close with a header in the 49th minute and Ebuehi winning a corner kick in the 57th minute. At this point, it became a ding-dong affair, with attack and counter attack, as England too came close in the 60th minute with Eric Dier heading wide from a corner in the 60th minute.

Rohr made a few more changes, with Ahmed Musa coming on for Moses in the 61st minute and Kelechi Iheanacho replacing Ighalo on the 76th minute mark. England manager Gareth Southgate made several changes too, with Danny Wellbeck coming on for Kane and Marcus Rashford replacing Raheem Sterling.

Shortly after coming on though, Musa was booked for a rash challenge on Rashford but his pacey runs gave the England defence a bit to think about. However, England managed to steady the ship and the game petered out into a tame finish, with Fabian Delph coming on for Alli in the 81st minute to give the Three Lions some defensive solidity in midfield.

At the post-match press conference, Rohr said he was happy with the second half performance and he was delighted with the response he saw from his wards. Appearing alongside skipper Mikel, Rohr said his team got off to a bad start due to a number of factors including the fact that the rain prevented them from training the day before and the boys were jet lagged after a 10 hour flight.

He added: "We could not train yesterday because of the rain and we only flew in a day before after about 10 hours of flying. I am confident about the future and for our next game we will have Wilfred Ndidi back as he will definitely start."

"Tomorrow we will drop two of our players, so over the next 24 hours I will have to explain to them the reason why they are being left out of the World Cup squad. These two will go along with us to Russia as part of our back-up team."

England manager Gareth Southgate, expressed delight at the way his team played in the first half, praising his front four of Sterling, Alli, Kane and Lingard for their selflessness. He said he was pleased with the way they kept the ball, found each other and were always spotting space wherever it appeared.

On why the team got caught out early in the second half, Southgate said it was because of Nigeria's change of formation, which took his wards time to adjust to. He added that the game was good test for his players because at some stage in the World Cup, they would face a team that plays like Nigeria and given that England were constantly playing European opposition, this kind of opponent was needed.

Southgate said: "We did not react quickly to their change of formation and it took us about seven to eight minutes to get to grips with it. They changed to three at the back and by the time we adjusted to that we had gone a goal down."

Both managers appeared relatively satisfied with the performances of their teams in what was the ultimate match of two halves. Southgate already has his 23 but Rohr will have to drop two players and should be making an announcement to that effect later today.

Giving an indication of a few players who will be in the squad, however, Rohr said: "We do not have a goalkeeping problem as Uzoho just needs these kind of games to get him ready for the World Cup. We shall also be taking Simy Nwankwo with us to Russia as we do not have this type of player in the squad.

Player rating:

Uzoho - 6

Abdullahi - 4 (Ebuehi - 6)

Idowu - 5

Ekong - 7

Balogun -5 (Omeruo - 6)

Onazi - 3 (Etebo -6)

Joel - 4 (Ogu -7)

Mikel - 6

Iwobi - 9

Ighalo -8 (Iheanacho - 5)

Moses - 7 (Musa -6)