Ekong, Balogun confident Super Eagles’ll bounce back from Croatia defeat

Super Eagles defence duo of William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun have expressed confidence in the ability of the team to recover strong after their defeat to Croatia on Saturday night.

The Eagles kicked off their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign on a disappointing note by falling 2-0 to Croatia at Kaliningrad, Russia, with both goals conceded from avoidable errors.

An own goal by Oghenekaro Etebo on 33 minutes and a converted penalty by Luka Modric in the 70th minute inflicted the painful loss on Nigeria.

Ekong, whose needless tussle with Mario Mandzukic inside the box led to the second goal, took to Twitter on Sunday night saying the team are now focused on their next game.

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“Not the start we wanted last night. Time now to focus and prepare for the next game. We will bounce back! #Naija #Russia2018,” the Turkey-based defender tweeted.

On his own part, Balogun also wrote on Twitter: “No defeat is too great to recover and bounce back. #WorldCup2018 #NigerianSuperEagles #DreamsDoComeTrue #Adeola.”

Also on Twitter on Sunday was Victor Moses: “Disappointed with the result last night but we win together and lose together and will dust ourselves down and be ready to fight again. We are working hard to put things right #SuperEagles.”

But as it stands, Croatia sit at the top of Group D with three points, followed by Argentina and Iceland with one point each.

The Super Eagles occupy the bottom, and must avoid defeat in their next game to keep alive their hopes of advancing to the next round.

They will face Iceland this Friday.

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