Leon Balogun Names The Two Super Eagles Stars That Outshone Messi In 2018 World Cup Clash Vs Argentina

Brighton & Hove loanee Leon Balogun has revisited Nigeria's match against Argentina at the 2018 World Cup and has blamed fatigue for the defeat to the South American powerhouse.

Gernot Rohr's team were four minutes away from qualifying for the last sixteen after a Victor Moses penalty cancelled out Lionel Messi's opener, only for Marcos Rojo to volley home the winner.

"That is football sometimes. We were in that game but in the last 20 minutes Argentina had us even though they were not really effective," Balogun said in an Instagram conversation with Funnybone on Sunday evening.

"We were defending like crazy. People were saying Mourinho tactic but whatever it takes to get to the next round I don't care, we could have played the ugliest football in the world and win the World Cup at the end, who cares?

"I think at the end what broke us was because we were tired, they were coming at us, one-way traffic, we lost a bit of the tactical discipline because we were basically tired, football is cruel."

Balogun claims that Super Eagles midfielders Oghenekaro Etebo and Wilfred Ndidi outshone the best player on the planet Lionel Messi and his teammates during the game in St Petersburg.

"Everybody, apart from the 60,000 Argentina fans in that stadium, was cheering for Nigeria to win and it was so hard.

"Some people were saying Messi, Messi, but he had one brilliant moment when he scored that goal but apart from that he wasn't really happening.  It was Etebo and Ndidi making a name for themselves, especially Etebo, he played an unbelievable World Cup, it was players like them outshining the Argentinians.

"It's tough, we can speak for that for days, probably one of the saddest days in my football life," added Balogun.

Balogun was one of five Super Eagles players to go the distance in all the matches played by Nigeria at the 2018 World Cup, the others being Francis Uzoho, William Troost-Ekong, Wilfred Ndidi and Victor Moses.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : fifa.com