New signing at Brighton Hove Albion, Leon Aderemi Balogun has predicted that the Super Eagles will do better in Wednesday’s international friendly against Czech Repu8blic, because he believes they learnt many lessons from Saturday’s loss to England.
A 2-1 slump at Wembley Stadium, London seemed to show many laxities in the Eagles’ structure, which Balogun said they cannot ignore, but adds that they will use Wednesday’s game to make corrections.
Balogun, who played 45 minutes of Nigeria’s 2-1 loss to England this past weekend, was on Sunday named in the final 23-man selection by Eagles’ manager, Gernot Rohr.
He is now hopeful of playing all three of his team’s group stage matches and believes they can get more than three games, should they qualify for the knockout stage.
The former Fortuna Dusseldorf, Darmstadt and SV Mainz of Germany stopper stressed that the Eagles are not scared by their group opponents and vowed that they will give a strong showing at the 2018 World Cup.
The Eagles will face Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in Group D, arguably the toughest pool in the first round of the tournament, but Balogun says there is nothing to be scared of.
“We gave a better performance and won the second half and that’s the way you have to look at it from our point of view – we’re taking the positives.
“But we have to learn from our mistakes because the tournament isn’t far away now. It’s a tough group and we know we have to be ready and well-prepared,” said the 29-year-old Germany-born defender.
