Super Eagles and Nottingham Forest player Emmanuel Dennis has received the backing of some of his teammates over his failure to hand the ball to Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong when Nigeria were awarded a penalty against Portugal in an international friendly game last week, Nigeriasoccernet.com gathered.
In the game between the European and African giants, Super Eagles were awarded a penalty with the scores at 2-0 on favour of the Europeans, a goal which if scored could have reduced the deficit to one and might have propelled Nigeria to a fight back but Emmanuel Dennis missed the opportunity from the spot after failing to allow the captain of the team to take the kick.
The arrogance shown by Dennis generated a lot of debate online and no doubts a little hiccups among the national team players but some of his teammates have shown their support to the Forest forward.
As many as five players of the senior national team of Nigeria have backed the decision of Emmanuel Dennis not to hand the ball to William Troost Ekong despite instructions from the coach, we gathered from Own Goal Nigeria.
Reacting to the incident, one of the players said it’s normal to have such kind of situation and it isn’t enough to crucify Dennis because any player could have also missed.” It happens all the time. It’s unfortunate that he missed it but he is among one of our best penalty takers, so no problem with insisting on taking it”
Another player said, the entire issue is been blown out of proportion as they didn’t see it the way many took it.”
“I’m not sure many people understood the essence of the game. It’s a friendly game and the incident is normal not the way it is being reported by the press,” he said.
A new player in the team also said the entire team didn’t fault Dennis because it wasn’t like he deliberately missed the penalty.”
“He didn’t pick up the ball to miss. His intention was to score and it’s unfortunate he didn’t. I’m a new player in the team and I can tell you that not even one person faulted him. It’s normal,” he rounded up saying.
The Super Eagles eventually lost the game 4-0 after Dennis missed the spot kick.
By Oluwayemi Omolagba
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