Super Eagles forward Samuel Chukwueze had an assist as Villarreal held Anderlecht to a 1-1 draw in Belgium in the first-leg round 16 of the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
Chukwueze has now provided 11 assists in all competitions for Villarreal this season.
He set up teammate Manu Trigueros for the opening goal in the 28th minute before Anders Dreyer equalised for Anderlecht on 57 minutes.
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In the 58th minute Chukwueze was one of two players substituted by Villarreal coach.
In Moldova, Terem Moffi was in action for OGC Nice who pipped FC Sheriff 1-0.
Nice’s goal was scored three minutes into first half added time by Ayoub Amraoui.
And in another Europa Conference League fixture, West Ham defeated AEK Athens 2-0 in Greece.
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Young Victor Boniface Okoh scored two goals in Germany today against Taiwo Awoniyi’s former club in a Europa League match. No mean feat, given that Union Berlin has grown to become a very decent club in The German Bundesliga.
Not a prisoner of the moment or anything like that but I have been impressed by the young man’s resilience and output first in Norway and now in Belgium.
Gift Orban is another striker doing well in Belgium, building on his impressive performance in Norway last season.
It would be appropriate if Mr. Peseiro rewards both players by inviting them to the senior national team sooner rather than later. In as much as I’m not against inviting foreign- born players to our senior national team, some of them who had the opportunity to represent us, but bluntly refused to, and in some cases, laced their refusal with public scorn and embarrassment. Even though, Nigeria may not be worth dying for given all the ugliness here, we still should try and respect ourselves a little bit and not let some of these foreign-born kids abuse us only to ”retrace their steps” when their careers start to go south.
There is no better time to start rebuilding our national team than now given our group, no disrespect meant. Now is the appropriate time to integrate players such as Olisa Ndah, Igo Ogbu, Sopuruchukwu Onyemaechi and the two aforementioned players into the senior national team. Chijioke Aniagboso, Benjamin Fredrick, Solomon Agbalaka and Abel Ogwuche distinguished themselves despite the U20’s not-too-impressive performance. I suggest the quartet be given a chance with the senior national team as well. We should start now to rebuild our senior national team’s defense instead of insisting on sticking with the older players who though have served us well and are very much appreciated but are now clearly past their best.
You guys were saying Bosso is a bad coach,wait am I reading something else?4 players clamoured to join the super eagles from Bosso’s poor team??Wonderful!
@ Greenturf. You are one forumites I always enjoy to read. But constant defence of Bosso leaves one thinking deep. Honestly speaking, Bosso lacks the ingredients to coach a team to play quality football. He doesn’t have it in him n that’s is the truth of the matter. He also doesn’t have eyes for players with X-factor quality (potentially super talented players). I repeat, in this team only Daga n maybe Anigboso has that thing that just gets above THE ORDINARY LINE. But one thing Bosso has over most of all our coaches and is very needed in our national teams, is his ability to drill players into very high level physical fitness. Looking at him, you can see how very fit he is at his age. It makes me think he must have been a fitness trainer.
@Glory,thanks for your submission.I cannot join the bandwagon to criticize and crucify a man who has worked so hard to qualify us for a world cup ticket through two difficult playoff routes,i’m not an ingrate.
We may have played fantastically in the past with possibly overaged players but Bosso this time is doing a satisfactory job of screening players who have past the age limit required for the competition.
These are players who may have given yous the football you all yearning for,instead integrity rather than malpractises was adopted to presents a group that will be beneficiary for us in the longrun.
Thank God players from Bosso’s ward are getting recommended for the senior national team not a bad job after all was it?
@ Greenturf. Your submission here that our very unimpressive performance is because he screened off over age cheats is a blatant excuse to disguise his very glaring deficiency as a coach.
We are a football country with over 360 million people those in diaspora inclusive. Bosso and co cannot tell us, Nigeria haven’t got x-factor talents well within age brackets. If we can’t get them in Nigeria because of age falsification, then go foreign were record are kept and cannot be denied.
POINT IS AT THESE AGE LEVEL, EMPHASIS IS ON PRODUCING THOSE X-FACTOR TALENT FOR THE MAIN STREAM SE WHILE WINNING THE TOURNAMENT IS ONLY SECONDARY. BUT BOSSO CASE IS DEFEATING BOTH TARGETS N STRANGE YOU EXPECT NIGERIANS TO BE GRATEFUL. GRATEFUL FOR WHAT? Can’t believe you saying we should be grateful when loads of really really talented kids are begging for a chance to represent. Watched clips of Thompson Ishaka n Ebenezer akinserino and felt ten times worse at the performance. put up by this Bosso team. Absolutely disgusting and disgraceful for a country doing things upside down.
@Glory,the same boys were so good in Niger circumstances may have led to the team not playing at same level.
One of the reasons was one i mentioned above,dropping of questionable players who could have helped the team in Egypt,Daniel Daga injury was another factor because the team was built around him,so early exit of the Xfactor player of the flying eagles affected creativity of the team.Pressure of playing and losing against Senegal in the first game.The team had to cope with pressure knowing one bad result could end there world cup ambition these boys are kids it’s not easy playing under this conditions.
It’s easy listing players as you did above but getting them to play as a unit is not as easy as most of us think.
Thankfully,you and some critics have discovered half a dozen players from same maligned Bosso’s team i think that’s enough to exonerate him it shows he’s putting together a group that will make us proud eventually.
We know he will include foreign based professionals to make the team stronger apparently,grey areas were noted so improvements is certain.
There were times we failed to qualify for the under 20 world cup it’s never our birth righ but Bosso has always made it to the world cup this time around he beat our boggy team Ghana en route Egypt he deserves a path in the back not a kick in the butt.
I thin only Friedrich, ogbelu, ayiangboso and ibrahim muhammed deserve the eagles for now, because they are good and their wings lacks men, agbalaka and oguche should hope for u23 they have no place with the eagles now