{"id":98130,"date":"2025-03-21T18:47:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda"},"modified":"2025-04-18T18:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T18:57:07","slug":"zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda","title":{"rendered":"Zim coach Michael Nees says Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Zimbabwe national football team coach Michael Nees believes the star-studded Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda when the two teams meet on Friday, March 21, at 6PM at Amahoro Stadium in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in an interview on Thursday, March 20 after his team fought back to recover from a two-goal deficit to claim a point in a 2-2 draw against Benin at the Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa, the German tactician recalled that the Super Eagles have always struggled against Amavubi in Rwanda.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can tell you, I know because I was working in Rwanda. They (Nigeria) always struggle in Rwanda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They missed the World Cup in Germany when they played a draw in Rwanda in 2005, they lost against Rwanda in the last Afcon qualifier game,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Despite failing to secure a spot at the 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations tournament, Rwanda stunned Nigeria in Uyo, beating their much-fancied opponents 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>Nees, heaped praise on Nigeria&#8217;s attacking talent, describing the Super Eagles&#8217; frontline as one of the top five in the world, but highlighted that having star players does not guarantee success on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the players that they have at their disposal, it&#8217;s massive! But sometimes the names don\u2019t automatically make a big performance,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Super Eagles have an impressive attacking lineup, boasting players like Galatasaray&#8217;s Victor Osimhen, Atalanta&#8217;s Ademola Lookman, and Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s Victor Boniface.<\/p>\n<p>The attack is further bolstered by AC Milan&#8217;s Samuel Chukwueze, Valencia&#8217;s Umar Sadiq, Genk forward Tolu Arokodare, and Moses Simon of Nantes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Rwanda<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Zimbabwe national football team coach Michael Nees believes the star-studded Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda when the two teams meet on Friday, March 21, at 6PM at Amahoro Stadium in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match. Speaking in an interview on Thursday, March 20 after his team fought back to recover [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":98129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18,772],"tags":[7128,1606,7127,758,6504,669],"class_list":["post-98130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","category-to-homepage","tag-ademola-lookman","tag-amavubi","tag-michael-nees","tag-rwanda","tag-victor-osimhen","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Zim coach Michael Nees says Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zimbabwe national football team coach Michael Nees believes the star-studded Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda when t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zim coach Michael Nees says Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Zimbabwe national football team coach Michael Nees believes the star-studded Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda when t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-21T18:47:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-18T18:57:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/03\/sm_1742570928.320856.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Zim coach Michael Nees says Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-21T18:47:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-18T18:57:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\"},\"wordCount\":291,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2025\/03\/sm_1742570928.320856.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ademola Lookman\",\"Amavubi\",\"Michael Nees\",\"Rwanda\",\"Victor Osimhen\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/zim-coach-michael-nees-says-nigeria-will-struggle-against-rwanda\",\"name\":\"Zim coach Michael Nees says Nigeria will struggle against Rwanda - 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