On Thursday, October 25th, round 3 of this year’s Europa League took place all around the continent. A total of 24 matches were played and several players with Nigerian descent took part.
Slavia Prague travelled to Denmark to play FC Copenhagen. They won the match 1:0 to take home all three points. Jan Matousek scored the winning goal at the start of the second half. Peter Oladeji Olayinka was on the bench for Slavia but never came in.
FC Zurich hosted the German side Bayer Leverkusen at the Letzigrund Stadion. This was an entertaining match with both Zurich and Leverkusen leading the game at one point. In the end, Zurich won the match 3:2. Zurich took the lead through Antonio Marchesano just before the break, only for Bayer to level the game in the 49th minute through Karim Bellarabi. He got his second only four minutes later to turn the score around and give the Germans the lead. Still, Zurich quickly fought back to score an equalizer, courtesy of Toni Domgjoni. Stephen Odey, the Nigerian striker, then scored in the 78th minute to give his side Zurich the win and the top spot in Group A.
Stephen Odey scoring a goal for FC Zurich (www.uefa.com)
RB Salzburg played the visiting Rosenborg at the Red Bull Arena. The home side won with a final score of 3:0. Moanes Dabour scored the first two for the Austrians, with Hannes Wolf netting the third. The Nigerian midfielder, Samuel Adegbenro, was subbed in midway through the second half for Rosenborg.
Arsenal travelled to Lisbon to play Sporting where they recorded their 11th win in a row in all competitions. The final score was 1:0 and the only goal of the game was scored by Danny Welbeck 13 minutes from the end. Alex Iwobi came in late in the second half to play only for a few minutes.
The Super Eagles winger, Samuel Kalu was a started for Bordeaux in their home defeat against Zenit St. Petersburg. The French took the lead in the 26th minute through Jimmy Briand, but Zenit recovered to level the game five minutes before the break through Artyom Dzyuba. Then, five minutes before the final whistle, Daler Kuzyaev scored the winner for the Russians.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored a hat trick to give Chelsea a 3:1 win over Bate Borisov at Stamford Bridge. Victor Moses came in from the bench in the 57th minute to replace Willian.
Glasgow Rangers played out a goalless draw with Spartak Moscow at the Ibrox. Oviemuno Ejaria, on loan from Liverpool this season, played the full 90 minutes.
The Norwegian side Sarpsborg hosted their neighbours from Sweden Malmo FF. Andreas Vindheim scored for the visitors in the 79th minute, before Ole Jørgen Halvorsen made the final score 1:1. Innocent Bonke played for Malmo, but only for the last ten minutes of the match.
Krasnodar played away to Standard Liege but went home empty after a 2:1 defeat. Ari scored for Krasnodar in the first half, but the home side turned it around in the second half with goals from Renaud Emond straight after the restart and Konstantinos Laifis deep into stoppage time. Uche Henry Agbo was subbed out at the break.
Villareal looked strong in their 5:0 thrashing of Rapid Wien. Pablo Fornals, Karl Toko Ekambi, Daniel Rabaseda Antolin and Gerard were the scorers for the Spaniards, while the third goal was an own goal by Mateo Barac. Samuel Chukwueze joined the game in the 65th minute.