Noni Madueke has cautioned that England must approach their match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with seriousness, anticipating a more fluid attacking performance than what was exhibited against Ghana in the group stages.
In a previous encounter, England faced difficulties breaking through Carlos Queiroz’s side, resulting in a 0-0 stalemate in Boston last week. The DRC is expected to adopt a similar counterattacking strategy for their round of 32 clash in Atlanta on Wednesday. Madueke, who played against both Croatia and Ghana, lost his starting position to his Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka for the recent victory over Panama.
Saka is anticipated to maintain his role on the right flank of England’s attack, while Djed Spence is likely to step in at right-back due to injuries affecting Reece James and Jarell Quansah. Madueke, however, insists that the DRC, which boasts several players from the Premier League such as Newcastle’s Yoane Wissa and Sunderland’s Noah Sidiki, should not be underestimated.
Madueke remarked, “I expect a difficult game for sure. When you get to this stage of the World Cup, you can’t take any opposition lightly. They will have their strengths and their qualities that they try to impose in the game. This game will definitely be difficult and we’ll be ready from the start.”
When questioned about concerns that England might again struggle against a low block, he responded, “It’s not just us. I feel like every team has difficulties with the opposition setting up 11 players in 30 metres of space. It’s not easy to break down. I think we’ve seen other top nations struggle as well. Spain, Portugal in the last game. It’s just part of football now. “Of course, when you play England, naturally you’re going to have a defensive approach because of the quality in our team. From our perspective, we have the same patterns and we’ll look to try and implement them a little bit better than we did in the last game versus Ghana, which probably will be similar to this one.”
He continued, “A lot of it is psychological,”
Madueke, who was reportedly set to take the sixth penalty in Arsenal’s shootout loss to Paris Saint-Germain last month before Gabriel Magalhães’ crucial miss, has been honing his penalty skills with his teammates. He emphasized the importance of maintaining composure should the match on Wednesday extend into penalties.
“How you strike the ball, depending on your run-up and whether you stop or whether you wait for the keeper, or whether you just pick a corner and look to strike it as cleanly as possible. All those things go into it.” he explained. “I feel like you always have to be at the highest level because you know you have a top player waiting and biting at your heels to try and get in the team. I think that type of healthy competition is good. Playing for Arsenal and England, you don’t really need anyone else to keep you at the highest level.”
When asked if competing with Saka for club and country has improved his performance since transferring to Arsenal from Chelsea last summer, Madueke stated, “I feel like you always have to be at the highest level because you know you have a top player waiting and biting at your heels to try and get in the team. I think that type of healthy competition is good. Playing for Arsenal and England, you don’t really need anyone else to keep you at the highest level.”
