Rafiu Durosinmi bagged an assist but it was not enough as Viktoria Plzen crashed out of the Europa League despite holding Lazio to a 1-1 draw in Italy on Thursday.
Also in action was Fisayo Dele-Bashiru who was introduced into the game on 79 minutes for Pedro.
Dele-Bashiru had been out since February due to a ankle injury which led to him being dropped from the Super Eagles 23-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
The 1-1 draw means Lazio go through to the quarter-finals 3-2 on aggregate after the Italians won the first leg 2-1 away.
Durosinmi, who got Plzen’s goal in the first leg defeat, set up Pavel Sulc for the opener on 52 minutes.
But with 13 minutes left in the second half Alessio Romagnoli equalised for Lazio.
In Greece, Bruno Onyemaechi featured for Olympiacos who defeated Bodo/Glimt 2-1 but still failed to progress into the next round.
Bodo/Glimt qualified for the last eight 4-2 on aggregate after winning the first leg 3-0.
Other teams who picked quarter-final tickets are Athletic Bilbao who beat Roma 3-1 to advance 4-3 on aggregate and Eintracht Frankfurt who hammered Ajax 4-1 and secured a 6-2 aggregate scoreline.
By James Agberebi
3 Comments
If Bashiru could play this game, why was he dropped from the SE list?
Wasn’t there adequate communication with Lazio physio on the nature of his injury and projected recovery time?
The squad is not bad but the middle looks light, especially with the omission of intelligent and constant-threat Bashiru and workhorse Onyeka.
God forbid the midfield is overran or non-existent. Then the game is as good as lost.
You’re right the midfield needs Dele and I also believe Dessers alongside Balogun should have made the squad. We’re playing with World Cup exit.
I agree with you on this @Kel. That Midfield is too light and weak with slow players like Ndidi and Aribo. We needed the strength and pace of Fisayo Basiru and Frank Onyeka in the middle of the pack.
If Fisayo could play for Lazio in the UEFA League yesterday-albeit as a sub-then he should be picked for next week’s WCQ game against Rwanda. Apart from Fisayo’s work ethic, pace and strength, he can also score goals from range with good shots and also pop up in the opponents 18-yard to score goals when our strikers are tightly marked, which Ndidi couldn’t do even when he was fitter over 6 years ago till date in the SE.