Europa League returned this week with a couple of Nigerian players in action for their respective clubs in the first leg Round of 32 games.
In this piece, we look at how the Nigerian players fared in Thursday night football across Europe.
Before the Europa League’s customary Thursday games, Fenerbahce hosted Zenit St. Petersburg on Tuesday and the Turkish club will take a 1-0 lead to Russia next week thanks to Victor Moses who assisted Islam Slimani to score the only goal of the game. It was Moses who rose the highest to meet a header from a corner while Slimani quickly pounced to slot past Zenith’s goalkeeper. In his first start for his new club, Moses was impressive and caused lots of problems for Zenit St. Petersburg’s defence before he was taken off.
The game was played on Tuesday for security reasons to avoid it clashing with Istanbul rival Galatasaray hosting Benfica also in the Europa League.
In Galatasaray's home game against Benfica, Henry Onyekuru played the full 90 minutes but was unable to prevent a 1-2 loss. Onyekuru had a quiet game as he was closely watching and failed to create any chances.
Youngster Samuel Chukwueze was on from the start for Villarreal who got a 1-0 win away at Sporting to continue their unbeaten run in the tournament this season. Chukwueze was lively in the game for Villarreal although his final balls were awful from a good position. He was taken off in the 74th minute.
Nigerian forward Peter Olayinka was a 60th-minute substitute for Czech side Slavia Prague who were held to a goalless draw by Genk of Belgium. Olayinka was lively when he came on but could not get any chances to give his side the winner.
In Belarus, Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi played the whole 90 minutes as Arsenal were shockingly beaten 1-0 by BATE Borisov. Iwobi had a frustrating evening, although he did make efforts to make things happen. Playing from the left, the Nigeria international connected well with Sead Kolašinac although the play didn’t lead to any goal.
Plzen were 2-1 winners over visitors Dinamo Zagreb with two Nigerian players in action. The home side had Ubong Ekpai from the start while the visitors had Nigerian player Iyayi Atiemwen as a second-half substitute.
Ekpai had a busy evening before he was taken off in the 70th minute while Atiemwen came on six minutes later but could not make any impact.
Former Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) goal king Stephen Odey was on from the start as FC Zurich were beaten 3-1 at home by Napoli. It was a tough evening for Odey who was closely watched by Kalidou Koulibaly and Nikola Maksimović. The Nigerian striker was not afforded any space at all and also didn’t get any service from his teammate.