'Zidane or Henry missed a penalty' - Reims coach sends message to disappointed Balogun

Stade de Reims coach Will Still has urged Folarin Balogun not to be worried after his penalty miss that denied The Red and Whites a victory in their French Ligue 1 encounter against OGC Nice this past weekend.

The Arsenal loanee won a penalty in the 55th minute after he was bundled to the turf by OGC Nice central defender Jean-Clair Todibo. 

Balogun's spot kick was palmed away by former Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, before the striker blazed the rebound over the bar. 

Had the England U21 international of Nigerian descent scored, he would have been the outright top scorer in the Ligue 1, an honour he currently shares with Paris Saint Germain's Kylian Mbappe and Lille's Jonathan David who are both on fifteen goals.

To buttress his point that the top players in the world have missed penalties,  Still namechecked 1998 World Cup winners Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry. 

"He's very disappointed. Very, very disappointed, but it happens, and I told him at the end of the match that It's not the end of the world," Still was quoted as saying by Ligue 1's official website.

"The best players in the world, be it Zinédine Zidane or Thierry Henry have missed a penalty at some point. It's part of football.

"It's a detail and one that we'll try to correct. He's the first to recognise that, and he expects a lot of himself, and he wants to score goals. But it's nothing too serious."

Balogun has scored five times from the penalty spot since his loan move to Stade de Reims, in matches against Clermont Foot, Angers SCO, Nantes, Les Herbiers VF and Lorient.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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