'I will do my best to stop Victor Osimhen' - Equatorial Guinea GK vows to neutralise Africa's best player 

Equatorial Guinea goalkeeper Jesús Owono is relishing the prospect of facing African Footballer of the Year, Victor Osimhen at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday afternoon. 

Nigeria scored 22 goals in six games during qualifying for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the highest tally among the 24 teams at this year’s tournament, with Osimhen accounting for 10 of those goals - twice as many as any other player.. 

The 2015 Fifa U17 World Cup Golden Boot winner is the marquee player in the Nigerian squad filled with amazing attacking talents and will surely start tomorrow's game barring a last-minute injury. 

Nigeria had ten different scorers during the 2023 AFCONQ and apart from Osimhen, six other players, who netted in the qualifiers, are with the team in Ivory Coast ahead of tomorrow's clash, namely Ademola Lookman, Moses Simon, Terem Moffi, Samuel Chukwueze, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi. 

Jose Peseiro was dealt three major blows in the attacking department with Taiwo Awoniyi (groin), Sadiq Umar (knee) and Victor Boniface (muscle-tendon) suffering injuries that ruled them out of the Africa Cup of Nations. 

"I  will do my best to stop Victor Osimhen and the other Super Eagles players in order to get a positive result in the first match," Owono said at the pre-match press conference. 

Nineteen of Osimhem's international goals were scored in competitive matches and he was directly involved in 55 percent of Nigeria's goals during the 2023 AFCONQ. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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