{"id":195002,"date":"2026-02-14T23:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey"},"modified":"2026-02-15T01:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:09:36","slug":"epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey","title":{"rendered":"EPL Iwobi Praises Foden for Challenge on Bassey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has given Manchester City star, Phil Foden a \u2018big respect\u2019 over his challenge on Calvin Bassey during both sides\u2019 recent Premier League tie.<\/p>\n<p>Iwobi also questioned referee Paul Tierney\u2019s decision not to send Foden off after his challenge on Bassey.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that Man City defeated Fulham 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium, but the second-half challenge by Foden on Bassey left the Nigerian defender in considerable pain.<\/p>\n<p>However, Iwobi was not happy with the officiating by Tierney as he suggested that Foden should have been given a red card instead of a yellow card.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCalvin\u2019s challenge, big respect to Phil Foden, but ref [referee], surely, what is going on there? I have heard and seen online that people are saying it should have been a red,\u201d Iwobi said on his podcast, Alexander Yaa Digg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, Phil Foden, I like him, big baller, but that challenge was a bit mad. It\u2019s what it is. The game is done and we can\u2019t dwell on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has given Manchester City star, Phil Foden a \u2018big respect\u2019 over his challenge on Calvin Bassey during both sides\u2019 recent Premier League tie. Iwobi also questioned referee Paul Tierney\u2019s decision not to send Foden off after his challenge on Bassey. Recall that Man City defeated Fulham 3-0 at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":195001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-195002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EPL Iwobi Praises Foden for Challenge on Bassey - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has given Manchester City star, Phil Foden a \u2018big respect\u2019 over his challenge on Calvin Ba ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPL Iwobi Praises Foden for Challenge on Bassey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has given Manchester City star, Phil Foden a \u2018big respect\u2019 over his challenge on Calvin Ba ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-14T22:57:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-15T00:09:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771114142.36507.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EPL Iwobi Praises Foden for Challenge on Bassey\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-14T22:57:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-15T00:09:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\"},\"wordCount\":194,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771114142.36507.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-iwobi-praises-foden-for-challenge-on-bassey\",\"name\":\"EPL Iwobi Praises Foden for Challenge on Bassey - 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