World Cup: Ebuehi, other players unhappy with Rohr

    By Eje peter 

 New Benfica right-back Tyronne Ebuehi is reportedly unhappy with Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr  for restriction to one match in the 2018 World Cup in Russia despite his form, a source has told our correspondent.

Ebuehi, who has a Nigerian father and a Dutch mother, pledged his international future to Nigeria  in 2017 after rejecting Rohr’s  invite to play in the Super Eagles’ World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Uyo on December 11, 2016.

The 22-year-old Dutch-born, who is capable of playing at left-back or right-back,  was a constant threat down the right  channel as he burst into the final third when he came in for  Brian Idowu  in the 2-0 defeat of Iceland  at  Volgograd Arena on June 22.

Many Nigerian fans  were left fuming after  Rohr ended the team’s 2-1 defeat by two-time world champions Argentina at the Saint Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday – to tumble out of the tournament – with Ebuehi idling away on the reserve bench.

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi ran Saint Petersburg-born left-back Idowu  ragged – and eventually  scored a  splendid  goal through the Amkar Perm   star’s position after taking down  a cracking pass from the deep by  Ever Banega before beating Nigeria goalkeeper Francis Uzoho from a tight angle  to open the scoring for  Argentina.

But the 64-year-old German coach defended his decision, insisting Idowu deserved to end the encounter.

 “Idowu was very solid in the team. He’s much better defensively and did very well against Messi. He has experience and can play on both sides of the flanks,” the former Bordeaux defence ace told reporters,

“Ebuehi is a fantastic player offensively.  He played well against Iceland but he is still very young and still learning.  He will definitely improve defensively and become a very important player for the team in the future.”

 Our correspondent learnt Ebuehi allegedly boiled with anger as the Eagles, who were in pole position to go through, continued to make mistakes trying to defend deep and then hit the desperate Argies on the counterattack, instead of taking the game to them.

Ebuehi, who joined Portuguese giants Benfica from Dutch club ADO Den Haag in May, was visibly angry as he stormed out of the dressing room into the Mixed Zone where he snubbed the journalists who requested interviews with him after the match.

Sources also claimed that some of the  players were not happy with Rohr’s  instructions to launch attacks when the match was tied at 1-1 in the dying minutes, which was enough for them to go through  as they were tired.

La Albiceleste   manager Jorge Sampaoli seized initiative by  replacing veteran holding midfielder Enzo Perez with  in-demand Boca Junior forward Cristian Pavon  in the 62nd minute, and throwing out sloppy PSG winger Angle Di Maria for rugged Independiente midfielder Maximiliano Meza in the  73rd minute before sending on  Sergio Aguero for Nicolas  Tagliafico in the 81st minute as they probed for the winner to save his team from an embarrassing exit from Russia.

(TEVB)