Noni Madueke has cautioned that England must approach their match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with seriousness, anticipating a more cohesive attacking performance than what was displayed against Ghana in the group stages.
In their previous encounter, England struggled to penetrate the defense of Carlos Queiroz’s squad, resulting in a 0-0 stalemate in Boston last week. The DRC is expected to adopt a similar counterattacking strategy for their last-32 matchup in Atlanta on Wednesday. Madueke, who featured in matches against Croatia and Ghana, lost his starting position to Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka for the victory over Panama.
Saka is likely to keep his place on the right flank of England’s attack, while Djed Spence is expected to take over at right-back due to injuries affecting Reece James and Jarell Quansah. However, Madueke insists that the DRC, boasting several players from the Premier League, including Newcastle’s Yoane Wissa and Sunderland’s Noah Sidiki, should not be underestimated.
“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 asked if there were concerns about England’s potential struggles against a low defensive block, he remarked, “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 added, “A lot of it is psychological,”
Madueke, who was reportedly set to take the sixth penalty in Arsenal’s recent shootout loss to Paris Saint-Germain, has been honing his penalty skills alongside the squad. He emphasized the importance of maintaining composure if the match on Wednesday extends to 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.”
Reflecting on his competition with Saka at both club and national levels since his transfer 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.”
