Scorer of Nigeria’s winning goal against South Africa on Wednesday night, William Troost-Ekong has described Super Eagles qualification for the semi final of AFCON 2019 as a ‘dream moment’.
The Italia Serie A centre-back with FC Udinese knocked home a corner in the 89th minute in Cairo as Super Eagles advanced into the semi final.
“It was a magic moment for me but I dream about moments like this. To score and for it to be important for the team is amazing,” Ekong told THISDAY at the mix zone after the game late Wednesday night.
“It’s not my job to score, I’m a defender so I was happy we didn’t give away too many chances. After they scored from a set-piece I thought that I wanted to revenge.
“We were confident we could score again. We didn’t want to go to extra time because we were going to be tired but I think it was the same for the South Africans,” revealed the Nigerian central defender.
On the delay caused by the use of the VAR, Ekong said it was akin to a sudden death situation. He was however happy that he was able to make up for it lapses that led to the controversial goal.
“The almost five minutes wait was like death sentence. The anxiety is like what you have during penalty shoot out when nobody is sure of whether a kick would be scored or not. But when the unexpected happens with the goal allowed to stay, we have to put ourselves together so that we don’t suffer like we did against Cameroon,” he remarked.
Nigeria, who won the last of their three titles in 2013, will play Algeria in the semi final on Sunday for a place in the final match on the 19th at the Cairo International stadium.
“I think every game is tough now. We’ve seen big teams lose and go out of the tournament so it’s going to be difficult whoever we face,” said Troost-Ekong. “We came here to try and win the trophy.”
