Captain of the Super Eagles of Nigeria has given a hint on how Super Eagles intend to shut out Argentina super star Lionel Messi when both teams meet later today in their final group D game.
Mikel is of the opinion that although Messi is one among the players who will be on parade for Argentina, putting an eye on him will no doubt still be the best thing for them to do as a team.
He reckoned that the Barcelona ace is the man who has the key to make Argentina tick, so keeping him in check might require a collective effort of the whole team during the course of the game.
“Messi is Messi. He decides games and the last time we met he scored two against us at the Brazil World Cup. Without him, they are definitely less of a team. We can’t put all our attention on Messi but he is the man that we need to stop.
“Do we have to put somebody to mark him? Maybe yes, maybe no because when you do that you are playing with less balance”, Mikel said .
