Gernot Rohr says Valentine Ozornwafor has proved doubters wrong following his impressive performance in the Super Eagles goalless draw against Cameroon, in their second friendly in Austria on Tuesday.

Ozornwafor made his first start for the Eagles after replacing the injured William Troost-Ekong and put up a commendable display.

There were question marks concerning his invitation for the friendlies due to limited number of games he played for his club last season. 

And Rohr has showered plaudits on the defender, stating he has shown he belong in the Eagles team.

“We had a problem in the defense so for the first time we played Valentine,” Rohr told Super Eagles media. “He did very well and we finished the match with Simon who is a winger playing left-back and we didn’t concede a goal.

“I’m very happy for Valentine because a lot of people did not understand why he was with us. He showed today the reason why he can play with us, he did very well in central defense.

“Like I said before, the result is not the most important, what is important is to test some players and see new faces which was the case again today. We didn’t want to concede a goal we wanted to score but we could not and when we are missing players like Osimhen, Aribo, Chukwueze, Kalu, Henry, it’s not easy.

“But they (players) did well, we had a lot of chances in this two games we couldn’t score but the match today was interesting. It was the last match of the season for a lot of the players, they came in the middle of the holidays to work hard for 10 days with us and the fruits of the work will come and I think we will be ready in September for the World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde.“

And on why Francis Uzoho, who was to be in goal against Cameroon missed the game, Rohr said:
“Uzoho did not feature against Cameroon because he was injured. He came this morning with a painful leg and told me coach I cannot make it. 

“Like Olayinka who was to start but in yesterday’s training he was injured which is not a big one but we don’t want to take any risk because I don’t want any player to go on holidays or back to their clubs with injury.“

source:- completesports