Barcelona Femeni of Spain attacker, Asisat Oshoala pushed aside recent injuries worries to star as a second half substitute in her side’s UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final victory over Paris-Saint Germaine of France, but she ended the game with an 85th minute yellow card.
With ‘Super Zee’ watching proceedings from the bench at the start of the encounter, Barca’s female squad braved all odds to defeat PSG 2-1 in the second leg of their semi-finals fixture and set up a clash with Chelsea of England in the Women’s UCL final.
Barca took an early two-goal lead, through Netherlands international, Lieke Martens, after which Marie-Antoinette Katoto halved the deficit for the visitors when she prodded in from close range in the 34th minute after a corner was not properly cleared.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, in confirmation that Oshoala’s injury problems are over, Barcelona’s coach, Lluís Cortés sent her in off the bench for the final eleven minutes for her third consecutive match since recovering from a foot surgery.
Although Oshoala was booked in the 85th minute for a foul on PSG’s goalkeeper, the Super Falcons’ captain got close to scoring in the 90th minute but her shot was stopped by the netminders’ legs after she raced onto a long ball over the top.
The four-time African Women Footballer of The Year, who has previously played or FC Robo of Lagos, Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt, Liverpool and Arsenal Ladies of England as well as Dalian Quanjian of China, will now hope for a better outing when Barcelona face Chelsea in the final on May 16 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
That game would also accord Oshoala the opportunity of a revival of glory, as Barca were beaten 4-1 by Olympique Lyon of France in last year’s final, despite the Nigerian skipper, who made a very quick recovery from her recent foot surgery to be part of the semi-finals, having scored in that encounter.
Oshoala is now eagerly looking forward to e better final, after helping Barcelona win Sunday’s semi-final return leg 2-1 and making it 3-2 on aggregate for her side, following a 1-1 draw with their French rivals a week earlier.
