'I Go With Confidence To The National Team' - Sparta's Okoye Happy To Redeem Himself Pre-Sierra Leone

Published: November 08, 2020

Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye redeemed himself by keeping a clean sheet in Sparta Rotterdam's 2-0 road win against RKC Waalwijk at the Mandemakers Stadion on Saturday night, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

The former Fortuna Düsseldorf glovesman received plenty of criticism from fans here in Nigeria and pundits abroad for his below par performance on his Eredivisie debut against Heerenveen a week ago.

Okoye was preferred over goalkeeper Benjamin van Leer as was the case in the TOTO KNVB beker clash against ADO Den Haag and the big loss to Heerenveen, and he repaid the manager's faith with his first ever clean sheet in the top-flight.

The Super Eagle made some good saves as Sparta Rotterdam won their first game of the season thanks to second half goals from Lennart Thy and Abdou Harroui.

In a post-match interview with public broadcaster RTV Rijnmond, Okoye confirmed that he will fly to Nigeria on Sunday to link up with the Super Eagles and acknowledged that he's improving more because he's an international player.

"I will leave tomorrow to Nigeria, we have two qualification games for the Africa Cup Of Nations against Sierra Leone," Okoye stated.

"It is important (for me to be in the Nigeria squad). Anywhere I have to perform, if it is here or there but of course it's a blessing for me to play for my country and I can't wait to be there back with the boys again."

He added : "Of course it gives you little boost, the last two games we did good as a team and for myself I also had a good performance for Nigeria, it gives confidence and joy - the most important in football.

"I go with confidence to the national team and I'm looking forward to the games, these both games we have to win too."

Okoye went the distance in Nigeria's last two games with Algeria and Tunisia and is battling the more experienced Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi and FC Lugano's Sebastian Osigwe for a starting shirt against Sierra Leone.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : sparta-rotterdam.nl

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