Eagles Star Troost-Ekong: Messi Or No Messi, We Know How Argentina Play

Published: June 23, 2018

William Troost-Ekong has commented on the upcoming meeting between Nigeria and Argentina at Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg on Tuesday, June 26.

The Bursaspor defender was in the Super Eagles team that came back from two goals down to beat Argentina 4-2 in a pre-World Cup friendly staged in Krasnodar last November.

Having gone the distance for the 18th straight game contested by the Super Eagles, the only player to do so since the appointment of Gernot Rohr, Ekong was delighted with the win over Iceland after helping the young goalkeeper Francis Uzoho to post a shutout.

''We got a lot of criticism after our first game so we needed the confidence boost,'' Ekong was quoted as saying by fifa.com.

''We took some great steps in the right direction and we should continue the way we performed in the second half against Iceland.

''The Argentina game will be completely different though. We faced them in November. Messi wasn’t there but we know how they play.''

Argentina were stunned 3-0 by Croatia in their second Group D fixture while their next opponents beat Iceland 2-0, thanks to two goals from Leicester City striker Ahmed Musa.

Igho Kingsley