AFCON: Nigeria not favourites for title, Rohr insists
Gernot Rohr
Super Eagles Manager Gernot Rohr has insisted that his side are not the favourite to win the 2019 African Cup of Nations, saying the likes of hosts Egypt and Senegal are ahead of Nigeria.
Gernot Rohr
Rohr believes the FIFA rankings suggests countries including north Africans Morocco and Tunisia will be difficult to break when the tournament gets underway in Egypt next June.
The German coach said his side did not qualify for the last two edittions of the tournament and it would be difficult to head into this one being overconfident. ”No, I do not think we can say that (Nigeria as favourite).
When we look at the ranking of Africa and FIFA, we are not the first African country,” Rohr told girondins4ever. com. ”There are other countries in front of us, I think we are fourth. There is Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt that may be favourite at home for the AFCON, there is also Senegal in front of us.
”The ranking is not just the latest results, but for a few years. In 2014, 2015, Nigeria was not great and did not qualify for the last two editions of AFCON. It has somewhat handicapped its ranking at FIFA and Africa.”
Nigeria have reached the last four of the AFCON 14 times in the competition’s history and only Egypt with 15 has a better record of qualifying for the semifinals.
