Brighton & Hove Albion of England defender, Leon Aderemi Balogun has opined that Sunday’s last group tie of the Africa Cup of Nations, against Madagascar in Alexandria, Egypt, will be tougher than many of the Super Eagles’ fans expect it to be, and says they cannot afford to take the game for granted, despite having already qualified for the next stage.
The Barea have been largely underrated at AFCON 2019, due to the fact that they are appearing in their debut at the African continental soccer showpiece, but Balogun warned that it would be dangerous to take them for granted, especially after they beat Burundi 1-0 on Thursday.
That victory took the country that used to be known as Malagasy on to four points in Grouip B, just two behind Nigeria’s six, such that victory against the Super Eagles on Sunday would take them top of the table, and the opportunity of bragging rights into the round of 16.
With that in view, Balogun is suing for caution in the Eagles’ camp and among their fans, as he says the initial talk about seeing coach of the side, Gernot Rohr, line out a second string squad to tackle Madagascar in their last group match might not materialise after all.
Considering that Nigeria have already qualified with a match to spar, the inkling among their fans had been that the like of Henry Onyekuru, John Ugochukwu Ogu, Ikehukwu Ezenwa and Victor Osimhen would get their opportunities to play at least one match at AFCON 2019.
That, though, now appears unlikely, as Rohr will surely be wary of taking Madagascar for granted on Sunday, and Balogun is quick to acknowledge that there will not be any margin for error during the upcoming game at Alexandria Stadium.
The former SV Mainz of Germany stopper said: ”I think we have done a great job. At the end we were better, that’s why we qualified. We have another game against Madagascar.
“I would say it’s a wrong approach to take the game easy because there’s another game coming after.
”Madagascar won’t take it easy, they also want to qualify, they’ve still got chances after their draw against Guinea (and victory over Burundi).
“So, it won’t an easy one but, definitely, we can be more relaxed than them. (However,) we would be well advised to keep our form up.”
