Finidi George, the Super Eagles’ coach, has declared that Benin’s Cheetahs coach, Gernot Rohr, should be terrified of Nigeria.
The Beninoise will host Nigeria’s Super Eagles on Match Day 4 of the qualifiers, and Finidi believes the Franco-German coach should be concerned.
“He should be the one to be fearful of the Super Eagles.
“We want to win the game, we will take risks to win.
“We should repeat the second-half performance against South Africa in Abidjan.
“That will give us a positive result that will change the narrative and that’s what we want to do on Monday,” he said.
George, further explained that the substitution of injured defender Semi Ajayi resulted in Victor Boniface being left on the bench in their earlier game against South Africa for the entire encounter between Nigeria and the Super Eagles.
On Friday night, the 2024 AFCON finalists rallied from behind to earn a 1-1 draw against Bafana Bafana in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Fans’ expectations were heightened when Victor Boniface, who scored 30 goals in all competitions for unbeaten German Bundesliga winners Bayer Leverkusen, was seen warming up, only to be benched when the Super Eagles needed goals to secure three points in the critical match.
At the post-match press conference, NPFL Champion Finidi George stated, “He (Boniface) was meant to come in, but when we heard Semi Ajayi complain about a knock, he couldn’t continue.
“So we had to reverse that,” stated the Nigerian leader when addressing the media following the encounter against South Africa.
Speaking further, the former Enyimba coach vowed that the 23-year-old would have his time in the next game against Benin Republic before requesting the media to let them do their job.
“For me it is what you can give to me on the field, everyone wants this or that player to play but at the end of the day if the player is not performing you guys will still be shouting ‘take him off’,” he added.
“So, let us do our job. We know who is good to go, we have another game so definitely we’ll see how we can play these guys,” George concluded.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and has only three points out of a possible nine in their first three qualifiers for the 2026 event.
With the draw, Lesotho led Group C with five points, followed by Rwanda, Benin Republic, and South Africa, each with four points.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles are fifth in the standings, with three points after three matches.
