The Super Eagles’ loss to Benin Republic in the 2026 World Cup qualifying match, according to Gernot Rohr, inspired them to defeat his team on Saturday.

The Eagles defeated the Benin Republic’s Cheetahs 3-0 to start their Group D campaign in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers off to the ideal start.

The Eagles won easily thanks to a brace from Ademola Lookman and a goal from Victor Osimhen, who is back.

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In their June meeting on matchday 4 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the teams had come back from a goal down to win 2-1 for the Cheetahs.

After the game, Rohr said the Eagles exacted revenge for their three-month-ago loss.

“When you look at the Nigerian squad, they are all very high-level players who play for their clubs,” Rohr said.

“And unfortunately we have players who don’t play much for their clubs. So, you can’t compare the two squads.

“We managed to beat them at home.

“That gave them extra motivation to take their revenge, which is normal.

“And we saw that at home, in addition, with the stars present today, who weren’t there last time in Abidjan, the captain Ekong, also Osimhen.

” You see that there are means in this team that we don’t have. So, we have to stay in our place.”

Rohr said their target is to try and finish second in the group.

“We want to finish at least in second place in this group.

” If you have conceded three goals it means something has not worked in defense.

“We knew it was the most difficult match, the first in Nigeria. Now, we will have to start getting points, from Tuesday.

“When we were almost at half-time, we conceded the first goal.

“It was something that boosted them and hurt us.

” So, in the second half, we were forced to reveal ourselves a little more.

“With the speed of their attackers, Lookman, Chukwueze and also Boniface, there were spaces, so they took advantage of it.”