UD Leganes of Spain defender, Chidozie Awaziem was back to shaky form on Saturday, as his inability to head out a loose ball cost his side dearly in their first match of the restart in LaLiga, with a 2-1 loss to Real Valladolid setting them off on the wrong foot, megasportsarena.com reports.
Awaziem was in the starting line-up for Leganes alongside Super Eagles’ colleague, Kenneth Omeruo in the heart of Leganes’ defence, but the dreadlocks-wearing lad felt like having the ground swallow him up after he failed to connect a header and allowed the opponents score the game’s opening goal.
It was a case of poor communication between Awaziem and Leganes’ goalkeeper, Pichu Cuellar in the second minute that allowed Enes Unal put the ball into an empty net, as he broke the deadlock for Valladolid.
That marked the beginning of victory for Ghana youngster, Mohamed Salisu, played a vital role in helping Valladolid win Saturday’s La Liga encounter at Estadio Municipal de Butarque, where a second goal by Ruben Alcaraz helped the visitors secure maximum points.
While Awaziem had an evening to forget it was a slightly different case for Omeruo, who had a good outing with the most interceptions (3), the most passes (74), the most aerial balls won (7) and most touches (80) in Javier Aguirre’s team from Leganes.
It was Omeruo’s 20th appearance in La Liga this campaign, one more than Awaziem, who is on a season-long loan from FC of Porto of Portugal, but the loss compounded Leganes’ relegation woes, as they are level on 23 points with bottom-placed Espanyol after 28 games.
Also in Spain on Saturday, Villarreal winger, Samuel Chukwueze got off the bench to help his side snatch a 1-0 win away to Celta Vigo, after he replaced Gerrard Moreno on 58 minutes, and came very close to breaking the deadlock late on when he went on a solo run but was denied by the goalkeeper.
