Third place finish at AFCON for Leon Balogun and Nigeria
Leon Balogun and Nigeria rounded off their African Cup of Nations campaign by securing a third place finish with victory over Tunisia in Cairo.
Balogun watched on from the bench as former Watford striker Odion Ighalo scored the only goal of the game to give the Super Eagles a 1-0 win.
As is normally the case with third place playoffs, the game was hardly a classic. There were only five shots on target across the 90 minutes with Nigeria recording four of them.
That they didn’t add to Ighalo’s strike was largely because of the excellence of Tunisia goalkeeper Moez Ben Cherifia. He produced a finger tip save to keep out Samuel Chukwueze in the second half and then made a wonderfully acrobatic camera save from Samuel Kalu’s free-kick.
The result meant that Nigeria finished third in the competition for a remarkable eighth time. Their hopes of winning it were ended in Sunday’s semi final when they lost 2-1 to Algeria thanks to Riyad Mahrez’s 95th minute winner. Balogun was again an unused substitute for that one.
It’s been a largely frustrating tournament on a personal level for the Albion centre back. Balogun started only one game, Nigeria’s shock 2-0 defeat to Madagascar in the group stage in which he had something of a nightmare against the tournament debutants by gifting them their opener.
Midfielder John Ogu played an admittedly under hit pass back to Balogun but even so, he looked like he was in his own little world – à la West Bromwich Albion away in the FA Cup – as he dithered alarmingly, allowing Lalaina Nomenjanahary to pounce on the loose ball and advance to open the scoring.
He paid for that mistake by being dropped for Nigeria’s second round meeting with Cameroon, appearing as a substitute for only the final seconds.
That was at least more game time than Gaetan Bong got. He wasn’t called upon at all by the Indomitable Elephants in that round of 16 clash which Nigeria won 3-2. Bong’s only action of the tournament came in Cameroon’s second group game, a 0-0 draw with Ghana.
Balogun was again named on the bench for Nigeria’s quarter final against South Africa and again he was only thrown on in injury time to help his side hold on for victory. They knocked Percy Tau and co out via a 2-1 success.
It’s Tau in fact who has had the best tournament of the Albion’s representatives. He received rave reviews in Bafana Bafana’s shock 1-0 win over Egypt and was their most dangerous player in that last eight meeting with Nigeria.
The Lion of Judah’s performances make it all the more disappointing that he still won’t qualify for a British Work Permit for the 2019-20.
Depending on where he moves on loan to ahead of the new campaign, it could be some time before we get to see Tau in the stripes. If we see him at all.
The same may also be true of Balogun, albeit for different reasons. At 31 and with Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and probably Matt Clarke ahead of him in the pecking order, it would be no surprise should Balogun seek to leave the Albion in the new future.
The defender was said to be unhappy at his lack of first team action and that was before it cost him his place in his national side. It will be interesting to see what happens with Balogun when he returns to training after his exploits in Egypt.
