Ndidi Returns, Gives Away Penalty, Stirs Controversy In Central Defence

Leicester City of England midfielder, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi gave Nigerian soccer fans something to cheer about on Tuesday night, as he returned from a hamstring injury to star in central defence for his team, but ended up in controversy after giving away a penalty.

Aside the foul on Mohammed Salah that gave Liverpool a penalty, which was wasted, Ndidi committed a couple of other tell tale rough tackles, which left analysts divided over the referee’s calls when the Super Eagles’ star was involved in such crunchy moments.

While Nigerian fans would heave a sigh of relief that the former Nath Boys of Lagos and Racing Genk of Belgium ace is no longer an injury doubt ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, two former players of Liverpool were left in heated argument over his tackles.

Megasportsarena.com reports that such was the case with Liverpool legends, Emile Heskey and Steven McManaman, who spoke about the penalty incident involving Ndidi and Salah during the first half of Tuesday night’s English Premier League clash at King Power Stadium.

The match referee, Michael Oliver awarded Liverpool a penalty after Ndidi tripped Salah on the edge of the six-yard box in the 15th minute, but Leicester’s goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel kept out the Egyptian winger’s effort.

Salah still got unto the rebound, only for the Egypt international to hit the bar with a header, following which Leicester managed to clear the danger, but Heskey and McManaman, agreed that Oliver awarding a spot kick to Liverpool was the right decision.

Critics further recalled that Ndidi also gave away penalties against Legia Warsaw of Poland in the UEFA Europa League and Watford in the EPL last month, with both kicks converted by The Foxes’ opposition, such that Nigerian fans would love to see the star avoid such while playing for their national team.

The call is out for Ndidi to watch his tackles, as his foul on the edge of the area gave Riyard Mahrez the opportunity of scoring a last minute winner for Algeria in the semi-final of last year’s AFCON in Egypt, with the words of McManaman and Heskey now bound to resonate heading into Cameroon 2022.

McManaman said: “It was a penalty, I don’t think anybody could argue with that. You’ve got Boubakary Soumare behind, you’ve got Amartey in front of Mohamed Salah, you don’t go diving and then making it easy for him like that.”

Heskey backed McManaman, as the former striker posited: “You can’t argue with that one. You’ve got to stand your ground and make him make a move and he didn’t do that, he just stuck his leg out.”