Rohr urges fans not to panic following 0-1 loss to Czech Republic saying his team will be ready

SUPER Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has urged Nigerian fans not to panic over the team's recent loss to the Czech Republic in their last warm-up game yesterday when they slumped to a 0-1 loss in Austria.

In a very disappointing game, the Eagles succumbed to a 25th minute goal to the Czechs, raising concerns about how Nigeria will fare in their World Cup group where they are up against Argentina, Croatia and Iceland. This was the second successive loss Nigeria's Super Eagles have suffered in four days after a defeat by England on Saturday.

Of late, the team has been off the boil as it has failed to secure a win in its last four matches, following a 1-1 draw against Congo DR in Port Harcourt and being beaten 0-2 by Serbia. However Mr Rohr says there is no cause for alarm over their recent run of poor results, adding that he is confident that the team will be ready for the challenge of the World Cup in 10 days time when they take on Croatia in their opening group D game.

Mr Rohr added:  “I don’t worry about friendly results. We are not ready now for the World Cup but we will be ready in 10 days.”

Yesterday afternoon at the Rudolf Tonn Stadion in Schwechat, near Vienna, the Eagles fell to a solitary first half strike from Tomas Kalas. In a match that showed Nigeria's weakness in attack, the closest the Eagles came to scoring in the first half was when Wilfred Ndidi hit a speculative effort from range that almost beat the Czech goalkeeper but he managed to save it at full stretch.

Following the restart, Super Eagles dominated the second half but poor decision-making in the opponent’s half and a terrible miss from Victor Moses denied them the chance to level the tie. Bizarrely, the game only lasted 80 minutes as the match was interrupted for close to 10 minutes due to a heavy downpour.