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Nigerian stars Gift Orban, Victor Boniface, and Noah Sarenren Bazee were on target in Germany on Sunday, Soccernet.football reports.
Victor Boniface put away all the off-field issues he has faced over the past few weeks to fire Bayer Leverkusen to a thrilling 3-1 Bundesliga win over Hoffenheim.
The Super Eagles forward had been injured since last year, he escaped unscathed in a terrible car accident and very nearly joined Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr last week.
Despite all these troubles, Boniface was back on the scoresheet for Leverkusen against Hoffenheim as he fired a low shot into the net to open the scoring for the German champions in the 15th minute. It was Boniface’s seventh league goal in 11 appearances this term which is comparable to the 14 goals he managed in 23 Bundesliga games last season.
Jeremie Frimpong and Patrik Schick added further goals on either side of the halftime break as Leverkusen looked comfortable at the BayerArena.
However, Gift Orban came off the bench to reduce the deficit for the visitors with a tidy left-footed finish following a set-piece situation just past the hour mark.
Orban’s strike came moments after Bayer Leverkusen were reduced to ten men after the dismissal of Álex Grimaldo. Despite their numerical advantage, Hoffenheim could not muster a comeback with Christian Ilzer’s men still a mere four points above the relegation zone.
Elsewhere, former Super Eagles invitee, Noah Sarenren Bazee found the net for the second time in the German 3 Liga this season as his Arminia Bielefeld stumbled to a 2-1 hoke defeat against Rot-Weiss Essen.
In Turkey, Nigeria’s duo of Ibrahim Olawoyin and David Akintola claimed assists as Rizespor were beaten 3-2 at José Mourinho’s Fenerbahce.
Fenerbache were stunned by two early Rizespor goals as Ali Sowe broke the deadlock in the 6th minute thanks to an Olawoyin assist. The Gambian forward doubled the visitors’ advantage seven minutes later after capitalising on an Akinyola assist.
However, a moment of controversy changed the complexion of the game as Olawoyin was shown a red card for a foul on Edin Dzeko in the penalty area. The former Manchester City striker dusted himself and converted the spot-kick to hand Fenerbahce a lifeline.
Dzeko got his second goal of the night in the 79th minute before En-Nesyri netted the winning goal ten minutes later for the hosts.
Having played one game more, Fenerbahce are now only three points behind leaders Galatasaray on the Super Lig table.
