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Scorecard: Bloody outing for Osimhen, more grace to Iheanacho as Olayinka wins Fortuna Liga

By our reporter On May 3, 2021 0

Light of grace is still shining on Nigerian players across the world as they continued to make their impact felt in club jerseys.

As the football leagues are rounding off in Europe, some Nigerians are fortunate to be among those in the celebration mood with their respective clubs.

Peter Olayinka just won his third Fortuna Liga (Czech First League) title with Slavia Prague in as many years following the 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen.

Olayinka joined Slavia from Gent in 2018 and has won the league title in each of the seasons he has spent at the club so far.

Gernot Rohr has a plethora of attacking options to choose from for Nigeria’s World Cup qualifiers next month after Sadiq Umar became the third Nigerian player to score more than 15 league goals in Europe this season.

The former Rangers star scored a brace inside seven minutes but Almeria’s automatic promotion hopes took a massive blow after they played a 2-2 draw at home to Real Oviedo.

Kelechi Iheanacho provided an assist as Leicester City played out a 1-1 draw with Southampton in last Friday’s Premier League game.

The Nigeria international has been in fine form for the Foxes this season and against the Saints, he was handed his 12th league start.

The forward paired Jamie Vardy in Leicester’s attack and set up the only goal for his side in the encounter to ensure they extended their unbeaten run to four games.

Maduka Okoye gave another assured display in goal as Sparta Rotterdam picked up their 11th win in the Eredivisie this season following a 2-1 victory over Groningen at the Hitachi Capital Mobility Stadion.

Okoye has now established himself as Sparta’s first-choice goalkeeper as the game against Groningen was his 25th appearance in the Dutch top-flight this season.

Moses Simon contributed to two of Nantes’ four goals as Antoine Komboaure’s men handed a 4-1 thrashing to Brest in a matchday 35 Ligue 1 clash at the Stade Francis le Ble.

Simon opened the scoring for the visitors after just 15 minutes and provided the assist to his side’s third goal courtesy of Imran Louza early in the second half.

Victor Osimhen was yet again on target after he opened the scoring for Napoli in their Serie A clash against Cagliari at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium but his celebration was short-lived by a bloody head injury.

The Nigerian put Gli Azzuri ahead in the 13th minute after he was played through by Lorenzo Insigne. Osimhen got on the end of a pass from Insigne before beating Diego Godin with his strength and slotting past Alessio Cragno in Cagliari’s goal.

Barcelona Ladies and Asisat Oshoala will hope they are second-time lucky when they battle Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on May 16 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Barcelona qualified for the championship game when they eliminated PSG 3-2 on aggregate, while Chelsea edged past Bayern Munich 5-3 on aggregate.

Frank Onyeka, the box-to-box defensive midfielder was on target for table-topping FC Midtjylland in a 3-0 home win over Nordsjaelland in the Danish Championship playoffs. His club are now just four rounds of matches away from another title. Onyeka himself looks set to finally take his football to a bigger league in the summer after the club rejected concrete offers for him last year.

At the same time, Samuel Adegbenro, the former Rosenborg winger scored a brace at Orebro at the weekend to prove he is fully settled in Sweden with Norrkoping. He has now netted three goals in the first four matches of the new season.

Sadiq Umar,the centre-forward grabbed his 20th goal in all competitions in Spain this season with a brace at Real Oviedo. UD Almeria should make the promotion playoffs and Sadiq’s goals will again be crucial for a return to La Liga.

Paul Onuachu is still basking in the euphoria of the Genk Belgian Cup victory recently.

The Super Eagles forward set up Theo Bongonda to score the Smurfs’ second goal in the 80th minute after Junya Ito opened the scoring in Brussels, three minutes into the second half.