Olympiakos of Greece attacker, Henry Onyekuru was on song with his first goal since joining his new club, and it came on a night fellow-Nigerian forward, Ezekiel Henry (Henty) scored at the other end of the pitch in their UEFA Europa League clash.
Both Nigerian attackers were in top form during the game at Štadión Tehelné Pole, with ‘Henty’ going full blast for Slovan Bratislava at home against Olympiakos, who lined out the exuberant Onyekuru, but they both shared the spoils in 2-2 draw.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Henty equalized four minutes before half-time for the home team when he tapped home from close range to make it 1-1 after he was left unmarked in the box, thereby cancelling out El-Arabi’s opening goal.
Onyekuru then got into the spotlight in the 54th minute and he gleefully celebrated his first goal for Olympiakos, after curling the ball in following a quickly taken free-kick and his effort helped the Greek Super League side move into the group stage.
Elsewhere, Slavia Prague’s Ubong Ekpai opened the scoring in their 2-1 loss to Polish giants Legia Warsaw at Stadion Wojska Polskiego, where the former under-23 Eagles’ ace blasted home from the edge of the box with his first goal for the Czech Republic champions he joined this summer.
On the other hand, Marvin Egho’s opening goal for Randers was also in vain, as the Danish side crashed out of the competition with a 2-1 loss away to Galatasaray at Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadi.
Egho made hay before half-time, as the Nigerian-born Austria youth international directed a header beyond the goalkeeper after a lovely cross from the right wing by former Olympic Eagles’ invitee, Tosin Kehinde.
In a related development, Taiwo Awoniyi and Adewale Oladoye moved into the group stage of the new UEFA Conference League, but Akinkunmi Amoo and Yusuf Lawal were not that lucky.
Awoniyi’s Union Berlin were held to a goalless draw at home by KuPS, but qualified after a 4-0 win in Finland last week, when he struck a brace that proved to be pivotal, while Racing Gent of Belgium over turned a 1-0 loss at Polish club Rakow Czectochowa with a 3-0 home win.
Oladoye was a late sub for the victorious Gent, while Amoo’s Hammarby went crashing out, in spite of initially pulling level 4-4 on aggregate with FC Basel of Switzerland, who eventually won the game 4-3 via a penalty shootout.
Amoo, who is a former Golden Eaglets ace, was a late sub for Hammarby, but Yusuf Lawal, who was Man of the Match last week, was strangely not listed for his team’s game in Israel, where Maccabi Haifa spanked Neftchi of Azerbaijan 4-0 after both teams drew 3-3 last week.
In Scotland, Funsho Ojo could not rekindle Aberdeen’s hopes of making the group stage, as it all ended on a disappointing night at Pittodrie.
Despite playing at home, Ojo and his teammates surprisingly suffered a 3-1 defeat to Qarabag in the second leg of their qualifying play-off.
Trailing 1-0 from the opening match against the Azerbaijan club, the Dons’ task was made all the more difficult by an early strike from Tural Bayramov.
Kady Borges and Abdellah Zoubir then added further goals to pile on the misery, with a stoppage-time penalty from Lewis Ferguson little more than a consolation as Aberdeen were beaten 4-1 on aggregate.
With the tie well won, Qarabag seemed to take their foot off the gas and Ojo’s 20-yard strike was not far away from giving the hosts a consolation, fizzing millimetres over the crossbar.
The Dons were handed some late relief from the penalty spot as Calvin Ramsay went down and Ferguson – after a brief delay while a pitch incursion was dealt with – fired home, but it was too little too late.
