Following the second round clash of the Fifa World Cup between Nigeria and France on Monday which ended 2-0, Super Eagles midfielder John Mikel Obi has heaped praise on Les Blues and Juventus star Paul Pogba.
The Chelsea man has owned up that apart from the midfield duel with Pogba being "incredible", the Frenchman also deserved top marks.
“It was an incredible duel, it’s true. There were times when I thought he was starting to look tired, but then he went and scored the opening goal. I guess that, in the end, he wasn’t that tired! But yes, the two of us had a really good tussle.
“He’s an unbelievable player, isn’t he? He got the better of me today, but I’m sure we’ll come up against each other loads more times in the future. Who knows, maybe even at the next World Cup?” said Mikel rhetorically of the Juventus midfielder to Fifa.com.
However, the 27-year-old Mikel believes the Super Eagles "had a great tournament" despite seeing their ambition come to a halt in the round of 16.
“Honestly, I don’t think that we should be feeling bad right now. We’ve had a great tournament and today we showed the whole world just what we’re capable of, even when up against a great team.
“I think that we played really well from the start, right up until we conceded the opening goal. From that moment on, I’ll admit that we let our heads drop a bit. We couldn’t drag ourselves back into it, but none of that should take the shine off our performance.
“We were very well-organised. We knew exactly what we needed to do in defence against a strong team like France and, on top of that, whenever we had the ball we weren’t afraid to attack. We even had good chances to go in front ourselves. We got so much right, but mistakes do happen. What else can we say? We need to forget it and move on,” Mikel said on Monday after Nigeria crashed out of the World Cup in Brasilia."
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