Trabzonspor of Turkey striker, Anthony Nwakaeme was again on song at the weekend, as he struck a crucial winner for his team n the Turkish Super Lig, while Bayern Munch’s Nigerian-born youngster, Joshua Orobosa Zirkzee also ht target, on an evening Jamilu Collins returned to losing ways with low-flying SC Paderborn and Kingsley Ehizibue was yanked off by FC Cologne.
While the larger chunk of attention was on the German Bundesliga and the array of players of Nigerian descent lining out for the third straight weekend after resumption of action, despite continued worries over coronavirus, Nwakaeme ensured he stole some of the spotlight.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Nwakaeme picked up where he left off before the Lig was halted by helping Trabzonspor defeat Goztepe 3-1 in an away fixture at Gursel Aksel Stadium on Friday evening, as he hit target with a thumping header in the 16th minute.
That saw him take his tally for the season to 11 goals in the domestic Lig and 14 overall, from 38 appearances across all competitions, while the 31-year-old former Hapoel Be’er Sheva of Israel hitman also has 11 assists, on a log of 25 scoring contributions for his Trabzon-based side.
That puts him one more than he got over the course of last season; and he is now behind only Cyriel Dessers (20) and Victor Osimhen (18) in the ranking of Nigeria’s highest scoring players in Europe this season.
It was a similar story 24 hours later, this time in Germany, as Zirkzee made hay in the late kick-off and helped Munich to a 2-1 win against visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach at Allianz Arena, where the Holland under-19 international was on from the start.
While Zirkzee put his side on course for another exciting victory, hero of the evening turned out to be Leon Goretzka, whose late goal put Bayern just one win away from another Bundesliga title, as he struck four minutes from time to earn his side a 10th straight win in the season.
All The Bavarians now have to do is beat Werder Bremen on Tuesday to seal an eighth straight title, even as things looked pretty tough at a point on Saturday, as Benjamin Pavard’s own goal cancelled out Zirkzee’s opener for the hosts.
Nonetheless, the last laugh was for the Nigerian-born Germany international, who continued his fine form of the campaign with his third goal in six games to leave the champagne and help his side lead Borussia Dortmund by seven points with three games to play.
The last-gasp win became even more imperative after Dortmund earlier closed the gap to four points, after Erling Haaland got off their bench to net the only goal in the dying seconds of his side’s 1-0 win away to Fortuna Dusseldorf, who are yet to include Emil Maduka Okoye in their squad.
Also in Germany on Saturday, this time at Olympiastadion, Jordan Torunarigha was on for the duration with Hertha Berlin, but they suffered a 4-1 defeat at against visiting Eintracht Frankfurt, despite Krzysztof Piatek opening scoring for the hosts in the 24th minute.
Their fellow-capital city rivals, FC 1. Union Berlin had a different story, as Anthony Ujah played as a second half substitute in their a 2-1 win away to FC Cologne, who started Kingsley Ehizibue at RheinEnergieStadion, where they won with goals by Marvin Friedrich and Christian Gentner.
Ujah got off the bench to face his former side in the 63rd minute, same time when Ehizibue was replaced, while Union Berlin’s Nigerian youngster, Suleiman Abdullahi watched from the bench for all 90 minutes of the game.
On the other hand, Jamilu Collins played all 90 minutes at Benteler-Arena, but could not save Paderborn from slumping 5-1 away to Werder Bremen, whose goals were scored by Davy Klaassen (a brace), Yuya Osako, Maximilian Eggestein and Niclas Fuellkrug, while Abdelhamid Sabiri’s 66th minute strike proved to be a consolation for the Bundesliga stragglers.
