Glasgow Rangers of Scotland defender, Leon Aderemi Balogun has disclosed that he and every other playing in the Nigerian national team that played Thursday’s World Cup qualifier against Central African Republic (CAR) and in deep pain with their 1-0 loss to the minnows, megasportsarena.com reports.
Speaking in the wake of the shock defeat at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, the former Fortuna Dusseldorf of Germany as well as ex-Brighton and Wigan Athletic of England stopper stressed that they are more disappointed than their fans are with the defeat.
He, however, stressed that they are determined to bounce back to winning ways in Sunday’s reverse fixture, as the Eagles bid to reach a seventh World Cup out of the last eight, even as their fans reacted angrily to their team’s first loss in such a high-profile qualifier at home in 40 years.
The team’s last home defeat in a World Cup qualifier was back in 1981, when they were beaten 2-0 by Algeria, following the first that occurred in 1977, when Tunisia won 1-0 to reach their first outing at the Mundial in Argentina ’78.
Thursday’s defeat, therefore, did not go down well with Nigerian fans, who then attacked the Eagles’ bus outside the stadium and the squad had to be escorted by armed security personnel on a 10-kilometre journey to their hotel abode.
Nigerian fans and the media were aghast their darling team had lost at home to an opponent ranked well below them, as CAR secured one of their most famous wins through Les Herbiers FC attacker, Karl Namnganda, a substitute who plays in the fourth tier of French football.
Namnganda latched on to a hopeful long ball forward that fell between Balogun and William Troost-Ekong, between whom he strolled and then calmly slotted home in stoppage time for an unforgettable win for the team ranked 124th in the world.
Balogun, who was heavily criticised for the goal, told BBC Sport Africa: “We are the ones who played and are in deep pain. The players are more disappointed because we are the ones affected the most.
“We missed chances and should have taken the ones we had. We should have more demands on ourselves to do better than we did. The best thing now is that we know them.
“We have another chance to fix whatever happened on Thursday. I want the fans to know that we the players are in pain just like the fans.
“I understand how powerful football is here but we are the ones who suffer the most, tackles and all that. Sunday is another chance to sort this out.”
