Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue stealing hearts at Africa Cup of Nations

The Middlesbrough player is calm but aware of the importance of Sunday’s final group game against Gabon, where a win would see the last-minute hosts into the quarter-finals

Equatorial Guinea are leaving nothing to chance, even if that is what brought them here. While most of Esteban Becker’s squad train on an unassuming five-a-side pitch by a spot of wasteland outside Bata, their two prize assets have their feet up in the team hotel. Javier Balboa, the rangy ex-Real Madrid forward, is upstairs recuperating and Emilio Nsue has been wrapped in cotton wool too. It is Nsue, the Middlesborough wing-back, who has stolen hearts at this Africa Cup of Nations.

Chosen as captain by Becker despite having won just two caps before this month, he has been deployed as makeshift centre-forward in this Heath Robinson contraption of a team and scored the tournament’s first goal 16 minutes into the match against Republic of Congo last weekend. Victory against Gabon on Sunday evening will mean progression to the quarter-finals for the last-minute hosts and could, for this Mallorca-born footballer, lead to an unlikely homecoming too.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1C1vBWW