Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr is delighted to have won his first Africa Cup of Nations medal with Nigeria, Sports Extra reports.
The Eagles defeated the Carthage Eagles 1-0 in Wednesday’s third-place match with OdionIghalo grabbing the match winner after three minutes.
The win was the eighth time the Eagles are recording a win in the third-place match in as many games.
“I am happy to have won my first AFCON medal,” Rohr said at a post-match press conference at the Al Salam Stadium, Cairo on Wednesday.
“It was a hard tournament. But the future is very bright for my team. We have a lot of young talents coming through.
“I told my players that it would be better to end with a win than a loss. We were disappointed at not making the final but ending with a win is a good thing.
“We conceded some goals in the tournament, due to some mistakes and we have to work on those individual mistakes. But I am happy that each and every player in my Super Eagles squad of 23 played.
The German also praised his side’s mental strength during the tournament, insisting that they displayed a good attitude.
“What was good in my team, during this tournament, was the mental strength of my players. We lost to Madagascar but came back strongly against Cameroon. And even after our loss in the semi-final, they had a good attitude for the match of today (on Wednesday).
Rohr also reserved special praise for his retiring captain, Mikel Obi, for the role he played at the tournament.
Mikel capped 89 times by Nigeria announced during the tournament that the 2019 AFCON would be his last appearance for the Eagles.
“We have to thank Mikel Obi for the career that he has had with Nigeria. It’s very important we do that. He may not have played throughout the tournament, but he played his role as captain,” Rohr continued.
“We have to salute Mikel’s great career, he didn’t play in the qualifiers but it was good for the team that he is here. Now we have to look at others but we don’t have many midfielders in top clubs.
“We have Semi Ajayi, Iwobi, Etebo, Ndidi but we have to work hard to find a replacement.
He also expressed disappointment at the knee injury his top marksman, OdionIghalo, sustained in their third-place win over Tunisia.
“We are depressed with Ighalo’s injury and we wanted to win the bronze medal to make him smile. It’s a knee injury, he was supposed to return to his Chinese club after today but he can’t now.
On Francis Uzoho’s performance, Rohr said,”We also saw our third-choice goalkeeper today and he did well.
“The only problem he had was he didn’t get game time for his club.”