Nigeria’s biggest performer in Europe on Sunday turned out to be Union Berlin of Germany striker, Taiwo Awoniyi, who continued his amazing burst of form with another goal in the German Bundesliga, megasportsarena.com reports.
Awoniyi struck once again on an evening Joe Aribo and Leon Aderemi Balogun twinkled in action for Glasgow Rangers of Scotland, but it was the lad who will not join them in the Super Eagles’ camp this week that stood out best.
Awoniyi continues being left out of the Nigerian senior national team, despite showing great stuff in recent months with Union Berlin, which he joined in a full contract this summer after several years of being loaned out during a long-running tenure with Liverpool of England.
Such it was that the UAE 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup winner netted once again for The Iron Ones in their 2-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday afternoon.
Heading into the fixture, Union had gone on a run of 14 games without losing, with their last outing a 0-0 draw versus KuPS of Finland in a UEFA Europa Conference League encounter.
Four minutes before the half-time break, Awoniyi sent Berlin sent fans inside Stadion An der Alten Forsterei into a frenzy when he doubled his side’s advantage.
Having linked up brilliantly with Max Kruse, the former Nigeria youth international made a superb driving run before finding the target.
After 73 minutes of action, Awoniyi – who now has five goals in his last five games – was replaced by Kevin Behrens, whereas, his compatriots and teammates, Anthony Ujah and Suleiman Abdullahi were not listed for action.
In Scotland, Balogun and Aribo were involved as Rangers defeated their fellow-Glasgow-based arch rivals, Celtic by a solitary goal in the Scottish Old Firm derby at Ibrox Stadium on Sunday.
The duo played the entire game to ensure The Gers maintained their recent good run over their bitter rivals and the hosts recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
Aribo’s chance came in the 19th minute when he did well to get past several challenges. But a last-ditch effort by the opposing defender saved the Bhoys.
In the 28th minute, it seemed Balogun had handled the ball in the danger zone but the referee waved play on much to the sheer relief of the hosts.
Prior to facing the champions, Celtic had not tasted defeat and they had scored 12 goals in their last two matches against Dundee and St Mirren respectively, conceding none in the process.
However, Celtic were undone by Filip Helander’s second-half strike to suffer their first loss of the season in the Scottish Premiership.
