Last night saw the first matches in the UEFA Champions League in the 2018/19 season. Eight matches were played in total. In the early kick-off, Tottenham were defeated by Inter Milan who managed to score two late goals after the Spurs went 1:0 up courtesy of Eriksen. Mauro Icardi scored the equalizer in the 85th minutes and Matias Vecino gave Italians the win by scoring in the 2nd minutes of stoppage time. Luke Amos, a talented young Tottenham player, was considered for the squad for this match but in the end, didn’t make the cut.
How did the players of Nigerian descent and their teams perform?
Dominic Solanke, a perspective England U-21 player of Nigerian descent also had to watch from the stands as his Liverpool side beat Paris Saint-Germain 3:2 in an exciting match. Liverpool were 2:0 up in the first half with a goal from Daniel Sturridge and a penalty scored by James Milner, before Thomas Meunier pulled one back for PSG before the break. Kylian Mbappe managed to equalize late in the second half but then Liverpool brought on Robert Firmino who managed to score a great goal in the 2nd minute of time added on.
Luke Amos (www.tottenhamhotspur.com)
Borussia Dortmund managed to narrowly beat the Belgian champions Club Brugge 1:0 with a late goal by Christian Pulisic. Nigerian-born Netherlands player, Arnaut Groeneveld Danjuma, started the match for the Belgians, but was replaced by Dennis Bonaventure 14 minutes before the game ended. Danjuma is a talented young player who still might decide to play for the Super Eagles once the time comes, even though he said before he would like to play for the Dutch national team as well.
Even though he didn’t feature so far in the Russian Premier League, Brian Idowu was in the starting eleven for the away game in Istanbul, against Galatasaray. Lokomotiv Moscow lost the game 3:0 and Idowu though his teams nervousness at the start was the culprit. The coach later said the Idowu played OK even though he picked up a yellow card in the 60th minute. Henry Onyekuru came in as a substitute to play the last eight minutes of the match. Selcuk Inan, Garry Rodrigues and Eren Derdiyok scored for the Turkish team.
FC Porto drew the game with Schalke 1:1, with the Germans taking the lead through Breel Embolo before Otavinho equalized for the Portuguese. Chidozie Awaziem, who was in the Super Eagles squad earlier in the year in the World Cup in Russia, sat the game out on the bench.