The Nigerian trio of Kenneth Omeruo, Kelechi Nwakali and Ramon Azeez was in top form in the latest round of Spanish Copa del Rey matches, with all three ending the day upbeat, as they all helped their respective teams to victories away from home, megasportsarena.com reports.
The King’s Cup was back with a bomb, and Omeruo made the best of his return to the starting line-up at Leganes, as he helped his side reach the second round with a 1-0 win away to Ourense, with the Super Eagles’ stopper getting one better than his cameo appearance against Rayo Vallecano earlier this month after returning from injury.
On Saturday, the 27-year-old Omeruo started his first game since November, but the first half was much of a drab affair before the hosts were reduced to 10-men in the second half when Wadir Costa was sent off on 53 minutes.
Omeruo was then withdrawn on 74 minutes, after which Sergio Gonzalez broke the hosts’ resolve 12 minutes into extra time, when he finished off a Kevin Bua pass to seal the win for Leganes.
Elsewhere in The King’s Cup, this time at Estadio La Solano in Cuidad, Chile 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup Golden Eaglets-winning skipper, Kelechi Nwakali got off the bench at half time to inspire UD Huesca to a 3-2 win away to CD Marchamalo.
With his side leading 1-0 courtesy of a ninth-minute opener from Rafa Mir, Nwakali replaced Idrissa Doumbia on the resumption of play, but the hosts sent the game to extra time when Spanish midfielder Brun finished off a pass from Jony and it ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Huesca regained the lead four minutes into extra time when Mir fired home for 2-1, after the hosts failed to clear from a corner kick, following which Nwakali was involved in Huesca’s third goal when his long pass from the defence found Javier Ontiveros to run through on goal before he passed to Mir who tapped home into an empty net to complete his hat trick and make it 3-1.
Jose Miguel Garcia then scored a late consolation two minutes from time but it was Huesca who held on to progress to the second round of the competition, while Nwakali, who got 75 minutes of action, had a rating of 7.5, completed 85% passes, won 10 duels and got 100% of his dribbles.
Also back into the spotlight was Azeez, who played his first game since September and helped Granada reach the second round of the Spanish Cup with a 2-0 away win over AD San Juan, a week after he returned to the bench for Sunday’s league win away at Elche.
The former Almeria and Cadiz player took his place in a twin defensive midfield role alongside Cameroon’s Yan Brice with Granada, and the visitors made an electrifying start by taking the lead in the opening seconds when Chelsea Loanee Kennedy finished off a Jorge Molina assist.
Molina then turned scorer four minutes before the half-hour mark when he received a pass from Antonio Aranda to double the visitors lead and give them a 2-0 half time lead, but the second half of the encounter then failed to produce any goals as Granada held on to the win and extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to four games.
Azeez featured for the entire match, during which he recorded a game rating of 7.1, completed 90.5% of his passes, won three duels, made one interception and provide two key tackles, as his all-round efforts helped Granada romp into the next round of the competition.
