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The Chippa United goalkeeper was the net-minder in the absence of injured Carl Ikeme, and Babayaro is adamant that after this weekends performance that coach Gernot Rohr leave not stone unturned to get retired goalie Vincent Enyeama back or Nigeria will be in Dire Straits for both the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifications, as well as the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
"The first goal was from a cross, it is part of his job to call out his defenders by shouting man to man, so they won’t lose their man, but he instead thought the cross was going to come through for him to pick," said Babayaro as quoted by supersport.com website.
"It didn’t happen and his defence wasn’t organised by him to deal with Tokelo Rantie. That was poor.
"You have to look at how hilarious the second goal was. First of all the goalkeeper is the last line of defence, he sees what others can’t see.
"I wonder why he didn’t ask a defender to stay in his own half. That’s so elementary to know."
"Secondly with scores at 0-1 when you get caught out as a goalkeeper your first instinct is to foul the man, forget about the ball.
"Go for the man, get yourself sent off, take one for the team and let them respond. But he didn’t do any such thing. He performed poorly I must say.”
In other related matters, coach Rohr has also spoken up in defence of his goalkeeper absolving him of any blame.
"I won’t blame the keeper for the defeat, we lose as a team. The first goal, a header came from the right, through a cross from the South African right-back," Rohr said.
"The second had our keeper beaten from outside the box but we should have had a man marking the scorer. The whole team lost, I can’t blame a single player.”
Ironically Akpeyi made his first full cap in 2015, called in for the friendly vs. South Africa as a replacement for an injured Vincent Enyeama. He saved a penalty and was lauded for his strong keeping in his Man of the Match performance.
The return match with Bafana Bafana in South Africa is set to take place on October 12.
Read the full story on supersport.com
