Nigerian Players Abroad: Alex Iwobi panned, Osimhen fails to get a goal while Victor Moses and Joe Aribo score
Major talking points from the perspective of Nigerian players in Europe from last weekend's actions.
Nigerian players were in actions for their respective clubs all over the world. From Italy, Spain, Belgium, Pulse does a great deal of work to follow Nigerian players and see how they are faring.
From Europe, we take five points from the perspective of these players.
1. No goal for Osimhen but Napoli win
Victor Osimhen was on for 90 minutes as Napoli came back from a goal down to get a 2-1 win away at Benevento. Although Napoli won the game, a concern was Osimhen firing black in a second straight game.
They could be the excuse that he didn’t get enough service, but the Nigerian didn’t have a good afternoon on the pitch. His movement didn’t trouble the defence enough and he missed a very good chance when he rose and headed above the bar in the second half.
Osimhen is Napoli’s record signing and also their high-earner, so he needs goals and eye-catching performances to justify the money splashed on him.
2. Alex Iwobi panned again
Alex Iwobi saw only first-half action as Everton suffered their first defeat of the season with a 2-0 loss away at Southampton.
Starting in place of the suspended Richarlison, Iwobi was largely ineffective from the left-wing. He couldn’t create any chance from that side, lost the ball several times and cut a frustrated figure all through the first half.
It wasn’t just him, Everton were largely outplayed by the host and only had one effort on goal in that half which came from a curling effort from Gylfi Sigurðsson.
It was Iwobi however that bore the brunt of the fans' frustrations as was severely criticised on Twitter.
3. First goal for Victor Moses in Russia
In his first start for his new club Spartak Moscow, Victor Moses scored a fine goal to help them to a 3-1 win over Krasnodar on Saturday.
Continuing in his role at wing-back, Moses had a decent game and complemented it with a goal. It came in the 33rd minute after getting on a ball in the box. He feigned a shot with his right foot and then moved the ball to his left before curling past the goalkeeper to give his side a 2-0 lead.
4. Joe Aribo scores
Joe Aribo is a midfielder that knows how to get in goal-scoring positions. He did that again for Rangers over the weekend for the first goal in their 2-0 win at home against Livingston.
Coincidently, it was former Nigeria international Efe Ambrose, playing right-back for Livingston that made the error in the lead up to Aribo’s goal.
5. Difficult times for Dessers
Cyriel Dessers joined Genk in the summer after an impressive season at Heracles which saw him top of the goal-scoring chart before the 2019/2020 Eredivisie season was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, he has been able to replicate that form and meet all expectations at Genk. Although still early times, the Nigerian striker has struggled so far. He has however still managed to two goals in six games and three starts.
Coming from the bench on Sunday, he made the assist for Genk’s winner in their 2-1 win away at Gent.
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