Nigeria will peak at 2022 World Cup, says boss Gernot Rohr
Ahmed Musa scores twice for Super Eagles in World Cup Group D clash
Friday 22 June 2018 22:03, UK
Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr believes his team will not peak for another four years despite his side's 2-0 win against Group D rivals Iceland.
Leicester striker Ahmed Musa's second-half double in Volgograd kick-started Nigeria's World Cup after defeat to Croatia in their opening match.
The Super Eagles' win means they, Argentina, who they face in their final match, and Iceland still have a chance of qualifying for the knockout stage.
"What I like in my young team is humility, solidarity and fighting spirit," Rohr told a press conference. "I thought before this World Cup we were here to learn.
"I think this team will be ready in 2022 and this World Cup is coming early, but we have a good chance to win against Argentina."
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A win would take Nigeria through to the knockout rounds while a draw will be enough providing Iceland do not beat group leaders Croatia by a big enough margin.
"I think scoring against Argentina isn't that difficult for me," Musa said. "We know the importance of the game. It's do or die, we have to win."
Iceland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson remained upbeat despite seeing Everton midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson miss an 83rd-minute penalty for his side.
"It's a strange fact that we are still in the race," Hallgrimsson said. "We didn't think we would go through this World Cup without a loss and losses are always difficult to swallow. But we only need to beat Croatia, which is possibly easier to say than do."
Croatia top the group after 2-0 and 3-0 wins against Nigeria and Argentina respectively, but Hallgrimsson is undaunted.
"We've played Croatia four times in four years and we've often said we're like a married couple trying to get divorced but we always meet up again," he added.
"They've had two really, really good performances in the World Cup. The last one was a shining example of how good Croatia is, but that also gives us confidence because we were ahead of them in our (qualifying) group and have already beaten them once in Iceland."
