Eintracht Frankfurt Legend Okocha Rebukes Germany's Boateng : He Left Defensive Duties To Rüdiger

Published: June 23, 2018

Eintracht Frankfurt legend Austin Okocha has criticized Bayern Munich defender of Ghanaian descent, Jérôme Boateng, following Germany's 2-1 win over Sweden in a World Cup Group F encounter at Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi on Saturday evening.

Boateng was yellow carded in the 71st minute for tripping Sweden's Emil Forsberg and was given his marching orders by Polish referee Szymon Marciniak eleven minutes later after charging Marcus Berg from behind.

Okocha has suggested that the former Manchester City star was a burden to his central defensive partner Antonio Rüdiger.

Speaking in his post-match analysis for SuperSport, Okocha said : ''Boateng, today, was one of those players that was trying to overplay. He is a defender, his first job is to defend.

''Today, he was always out of position, and left Rüdiger to deal with everything that the Swedish attack threw at them, so I was disappointed with his performance today and he capped it all with a red card.

''He was struggling to get himself in a good position and there was no need for that tackle. If you stand in the right position, you don't need to get into tackles like that.''

Ola Toivonen gave Sweden the lead in the 32nd minute, Germany equalized through Marco Reus two minutes into the second half, then Real Madrid star Toni Kroos netted the game winner on 95 minutes.

Germany and Sweden have three points after two games in Group F, three behind Mexico, who have a perfect record after beating South Korea 2-1.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : fifa.com