Former Katsande United coach Henry Makinwa says there is no need for Nigeria to panic following their defeat to Cameroon in Friday’s international friendly.
The Super Eagles saw their five-match unbeaten run across all competitions come to an end when they lost 1-0 to the Indomitable Lions at the Wiener Neustadt Stadium in Austria.
Makinwa, who is a UEFA pro-licensed coach, explained that there are positives that can be taken from the defeat to the 2021 AFCON hosts.
“No cause for alarm because defeat is a possibility in football. Now that we ended up on the losing side, it should be taken as a loss and nothing more,” Makinwa told Goal.
“Before the game against Cameroon, it was obvious that Nigeria could not use all their players due to injuries, logistic reasons and maybe restrictions on travelling due to Covid-19.”
The former Vitoria Setubal and Rapid Bucuresti forward stated that Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr knows what to do in order to improve the team.
“The changes to be made are known only to the head coach because he knows exactly what went wrong [in the first leg] and the immediate solution,” he continued.
“People can speculate from outside, but the stakeholders know what the next step is.
“All I want to implore Nigerians to do is keep supporting the boys before, during and after the next game. Up, Super Eagles!”
Nigeria will now take on a strong Mexico side that has historically performed well at the FIFA World Cup in another international friendly at the United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the USA on Monday.
These friendlies can take the Nigerians a long way as they prepare for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September before the 2021 AFCON, which will be held in 2022 as well because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
