It was a case of different fortunes for two Nigerian-born youngsters in the UEFA Youth League (UYL), as Fasutino Anjorin was on the losing side with Chelsea, while Fisayo Dele-Bashiru hit target for Manchester City during his fifth appearance in the competition, megasportsarena.com gathered.
While Anjorin put up a brilliant show by failed to save Chelsea from losing 2-1 against Valencia of Spain, Dele-Bashiru, whose older brother, Tom, now plays for Watford in the English Premier League, opened his run of goals for Man City in a 5-0 mauling of the youth squad from Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.
The youngster Dele-Bashiru, who was in Nigeria’s youth national team, Flying Eagles’ final camp in Germany before the 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup in Poland, was joined by two other Nigerian-born lads, Gavin Bazunu and Nathanael Ogbeta, in The Citizens’ starting line-up for the game.
Dele-Bashiru got an assist in the 11th minute, when the ball was knocked him by a teammate after his shot was blocked, but he then got his name on the cards in the 31st minute with a hot strike from a distance of about 20 yards.
It was a different story for Anjorin, though, as the England U19 international could not save Chelsea from elimination in a 2-1 loss to Valencia at Estadio Antonio Puchades, where The Blues’ under-19 side, who are two-time winners of the UYL, failed to progress to the knockout stage of the prestige competition for the first time in their history.
Anjorin, who started four of Chelsea’s five matches and had two goals in the first leg tie against Valencia, missed a chance to net for The Blues in the 33rd minute, as his shot went wide, and Jordi Escobar then struck late to give Los Che their first win in this season’s UYL.