Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi has played down the burst up he had with former Man City forward Kelechi Iheanacho during Nigeria’s 4-2 win over Argentina.
Otamendi had a spat with Iheanacho whose his teammate few months ago before his move to Leicester City, as his trailing elbow caught him in the face during an aerial duel in the early stages of the game.
Otamendi’s angry reaction was met with a cool smile by Iheanacho who stood at the spot as the Argentine received treatment on the pitch, a sign of how remorseful he felt about the incident.
Although he was shown a yellow card for the foul, Otamendi speaking after the game played talks of a burst up with Iheanacho by saying it was all done in the heat of the game.
” He (Iheanacho) caught me with his elbow and I didn’t like it, maybe my reaction was a bit over the top, but we are cool. He apologised and we have both moved on”, Otamendi told Argentine sports channel TyC.
On the loss to Nigeria, the 29 year old tagged it as a blessing in disguise as it has exposed the areas they need to wotk on ahead of the World Cup in Russia next year.
” The defeat is positive because it means there are things to improve ; we will try to correct the things that were done wrong and to do better in the next friendly matches in preparations for the World Cup “.
Michael James
