After pulling out all the stops against Argentina this afternoon as his Nigeria side fell to a 1-0 defeat in their opening Group B game, Vincent Enyeama left the field with his head held high after an unforgettable performance.
The 24 year old was asked to outline how he stopped Argentina’s star player Lionel Messi with such frequency and his response mirrored the words of another famous Argentine no.10 during the World Cup of Mexico 86’.
“It was the best performance of my life,” he declared to AFP. “What makes it all the more special is that I did it against the best player in the world.” I watched Messi’s games in the Spanish league along with a little bit of good information that I got for the game. My secret lies with God. Thanks to him I was able to do what I did today as he allowed me to stay calm under pressure.”
Messi looked almost at his Barcelona best for large parts of the game and Maradona says it is easy to get the best out of him — just give him the ball. “We’ve talked about this and I want Messi close to the ball,” he said. “As long as he has fun close to the ball, then we will all be fine. If you take the ball away from him, it would be like taking chocolate away from a kid. He produced magic on the field today.”
The Mexico 86 winner admitted the failure to kill off Nigeria did make him and his team a little nervous. He added: “We suffered a little bit by not converting all those chances, we’ve won the match but when you fail to take those chances you could end up with a draw every minute”.
Loading ...