Apart from the Premier League which we covered in separate articles, a lot of Nigerian players were involved in league games for their respective teams in the rest of Europe.
In the Scudetto, Udinese hosted fellow bottom of the table team Frosinone at the Dacia Arena. William Troost-Ekong, the Super Eagles defender, was in the centre of the defence for Udinese and he played well for the full 90 minutes. Udinese took the lead in the first half through Rolando Mandragora, but Camillo Ciano equalized in the second half from the penalty spot. The end result was a draw.
On Sunday, in the Turkish Super League, the 2nd placed Trabzonspor hosted the bottom of the table club Rizespor at the Medical Park Stadium. Anthony Nwakaeme, Nigerian midfielder, played for the home team from the start. Abdülkadir Ömür scored the opener for Trabzonspor in the 24th minute. At the break, the score was 1:0.
Then in the second half, Ömürscored again, this time in the 67th minute. Twelve minutes later, they made it 3:0 with Hugo Rodallega the scorer, after a Nwakaeme assist. Soon after, Rizespor pulled a goal back through Aminu Umar, a Nigerian born forward. But, in the third minute of stoppage time, Nwakaeme scored himself to seal the 4:1 win for Trabzonspor.
Henry Onyekuru – Player of Galatasaray – Vlad1988 / Shutterstock.com
Galatasaray, who are fifth in the Turkish Super League but equal on points with the runners-up Trabzonspor, played at home against Sivasspor. After being a goal down after 9 minutes, scored by Robinho, they recovered and took the lead through Eren Derdiyok in the 20th minute and Sofiane Feghouli in the 30th minute. Before the end of the first half, Sivasspor levelled it through a Robinho second with the score at the break 2:2.
Then in the second half, the Super Eagles striker, Henry Onyekuru was the deciding factor, scoring two goals to put the game to rest. His first one was in the 51st minute and the second one, fourth for Galatasaray, in the 69th minute.
In the Sunday afternoon game, Leganes played Sevilla at the Butarque. Kenneth Omeruo, the Super Eagles centre-back, was in the thick of it from the start. His team, Leganes scored first after only five minutes of play. Sevilla, even though they went down to ten men at half-time, managed to save a point after Wissam Ben Yedder scored one minute into time added on.
In the only Ligue 1 game on Sunday, Bordeaux met Amiens at the Nouveau Stadium. A rare goal from Samuel Kalu, the Eagles winger, gave Bordeaux the lead but Amiens managed to take a point back home after equalizing late in the match. It stayed at 1:1 at the final whistle.
In Belgium, Charleroi played away to Zulte Waregem with Victor Osimhen back from injury. He couldn’t continue his scoring streak but played the full 90 minutes.
His side lost the game 3:1 and failed to move into the top five in the standings.