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Leganes of Spain defender, Kenneth Omeruo has received a fresh round of plaudits and commendations ahead of his expected outing with the Super Eagles on Wednesday at the Afirca Cup of Nations in Cameroon, megasportsarena.com reports.
The dark-skinned stopper, who is one of two surviving members from the Eagles’ squad that won the same competition at South Africa 2013, has held his own firmly innthe heart of Nigeria’s defence and is one of the main reasons behind their first two victories.
He initially gave a scare that age might be catching up with him, when he bowed out towards the end of the opening group 1-0 victory over Egypt, only to bounce back strong in training ahead of the second game and went on to last full 90 minutes.
That was a 3-1 win over 1970 winners, Sudan, with the Leganes star’s performance leaving many of his fans excited, and his partner in central defence, William Troost-Ekong, who is Nigeria’s stand-in captain at AFCON 2021, now joining in raining accolades on his pal.
The former Tottenham Hotspur of England youth team player, who also starred for Haugesund of Norway, Dordrecht of Netherlands, Bursaspor of Turkey, KAA Gent of Belgium and Udinese of Italy, is now looking forward to pairing Omeruo once again in Wednesday’s clash with Guinea Bissau.
He reflected on his past pairings with Leon Aderemi Balogun, Chidozie Awaziem and Semi Ajayi in the heart of the Eagles’ defence in recent years, all of which he acknowledged have been productive for him and the squad, but noted that it has been novel for him alongside Omeruo.
He acknowledged that the Eagles’ defensive display has been better since the appointment of ex-international, Augustine Eguavoen as interim coach of the side, and Troost-Ekong stressed that Omeruo has been an influential figure in the back-four at AFCON 2021.
Troost-Ekong declared: “We’ve got younger players as well so it’s up to the coach to make the selection and I enjoy playing with Kenneth.
“I think he’s a fantastic defender. So, it makes it easy but we have a lot of options defensively as well for the Super Eagles at the moment, Kenneth as well.
“In that sense there are no surprises and it’s not just me pairing with other players, we have some other fantastic players as well with Awaziem and Leon Balogun who is not here.”
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