Augustine Eguavoen, the Super Eagles’ interim coach, has defended the lineup he chose for the squad’s Tuesday away game against Rwanda.

The Amavubi held the West Africans to a scoreless draw at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali.

In keeping with his 3-4-3 configuration from the previous weekend, Eguavoen went with it when leading the squad against the Benin Republic’s Cheetahs 3-0.

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“I have been saddled with responsibility of qualifying the team for the next AFCON,”he reporters after the game.

“You know all our boys are playing abroad, for big clubs, so it is difficult within three days to prepare the team. We trained for three, four days before the Benin game.

“We then have to come here, it is very difficult to change formation. We don’t have time to play friendlies.

“We used the same formation at AFCON. It’s difficult to change things at this limited time.”

Eguavoen gave an explanation for his choice to start Victor Osimhen on the bench for the second straight game.

“Osimhen is our brother, you can’t throw a baby away with the bath water.

“We know what he is going through in Napoli. He just moved to Galatasaray and has not been playing active football for a while now,” Eguavoen added.

“We are trying to manage his fitness.

“He played the last 25 minutes in the last game and today we had a word with him that he can’t play 90 minutes or else he will get injured.

“Awoniyi before he came, had few minutes.

“We have 23 to 40 players we can pick from all the time.

“We can t play with all of them.

“So, it is a difficult one, we have the talent, but can’t start more than 11 players at a time.

“We talked about it, the bonding is there, it is acceptable to everyone.

“Sometimes the players can get frustrated but we know there is an accord.

“When you play give your best, when you are on the bench, do your best to support the team.”