Slavia Prague defender Igoh Ogbu was left disappointed after his side lost 1-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday despite an impressive showing by the defender in the heart of their defence.
Eintracht Frankfurt scored the only goal of the game in the 53th minute through Egyptian midfielder Omar Marmoush.
Despite Slavia Prague’s loss, the team performed admirably and has a performance to be proud of, but Ogbu emphasized that, for him, doing well without winning means nothing, showing his winner's mentality.
“Winning is the only answer; if you do not win, there is nothing like ‘you have tried,’” he told Afrik-Foot after the game.
“If we want to be champions, we need to act like it and do the business on the pitch.
“What makes a player a good player is when, after a game, he looks at himself and tells himself, ‘Yes, okay, today (against Frankfurt) did not go as planned, but keep pushing to the next one.’
“We had them today, but unfortunately, we could not score, and they scored first.
“We had the chances, but we did not use them, and the opponents got theirs and utilized it,” Ogbu added.
The 24-year-old Nigerian defender showed great mental strength to return after almost a month out due to a facial injury to start the Europa League game against the Germans, performing well in his comeback to European action while wearing a facemask.
Igoh Ogbu’s performance against Eintracht Frankfurt
Ogbu played 84 minutes in the game, making one clearance and five interceptions. He was rock-solid defensively and made a last-ditch tackle to prevent Frankfurt from scoring.
He made an impressive 65 touches, won three of the seven aerial duels he contested, and completed two successful tackles out of the four he attempted.
Despite his solid performance, Ogbu expressed that it’s not enough for him to play well if the team still loses, regardless of his individual efforts.
