WCQ: Beware of Mendes and Tavares, Rohr warns Super Eagles

 

Super Eagles head coach has warned his team of the threat that will be posed by Cape Verde’s attacking duo Ryan Mendes and Julio Tavares in Tuesday’s Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier.

Mendes, 31, who will earn his 50th cap for the Blue Sharks today, has scored 11 times for Cape Verde, while Tavares has three goals in his last four games for club and country.

Rohr led his side to a 2-0 win over Liberia last Friday in their opening Group C game while Cape Verde held Central Africa Republic to a 1-1 draw in Douala, Cameroon two days earlier.

Tavares scored Cape Verde’s goal in the encounter

Speaking ahead of the game, Rohr, who will be without 10 players for the game, said his team would aim to win the fixture.

“They like to play quickly forward, they have very good strikers, they have these wonderful players Mendes and Tavares, who played in France also, so we know them,” Rohr said after his team’s training at the Estádio Municipal Adérito Sena on Monday.

“They have very good offensive players and play very often with three in the back, we know that they like to come back to be sure that they don’t concede but we have our tactics to score a goal and to win the match.”

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“That is what we want to do, we know that it is not easy especially with this handicap of 10 players missing and two days less of recovery but it will be a challenge.”

“We have to show fighting spirit with good technical football like we always do.”

A win will also brighten the path of the three-time African champions to the knockout final round, given that home-and-away fixtures against the Central African Republic is what is on the plate in October.