Nigerians Abroad: Emenike and Musa in top scoring form in Russia

By Babajide Alaka

Jul 29, 2013 8:40:00 AM

The two Nigeria internationals have now scored twice in the three weeks old league to give their sides key victories

ENGLAND

Shola Ameobi replaced Papiss Cisse in attack for Newcastle on Sunday and scored the only goal as the Geordies beat Blackpool 1-0. The striker, recalled to the Super Eagles for the Nelson Mandela Challenge in August scored in the fifth minute as Blackpool’s defence failed to deal with a cross which Mike Williamson diverted to Ameobi, who then hit a volley past Matt Gilks in goal for Blackpool.
Omatsone Aluko scored a penalty in a 2-1 loss to Birmingham on Saturday as the left-winger continued his come-back from an injury that sidelined him for about six months.
Mikel Obi, who just returned to Chelsea after an extended break because of the Fifa Confederations Cup, joined up with the team and he was included in the squad that will go to the USA to compete in the Guinness tournament. Victor Moses is also included in the party.

RUSSIA

Emmanuel Emenike notched up his second league goal as he scored the third Spartak goal against Dynamo Moscow in a 4-1 win on Saturday.
Emenike had come on for brief appearances in the last two league games but started the Saturday match and scored in the 30th minute when he second-guessed a weak back pass, pounced on it and rolled it past the goalkeeper.
Emenike scored his first league goal since November 2012 last weekend against Ural.
Pavel Yakovlev scored the opener while Jurado grabbed two goals to lift Spartak to the top of the three-week old league with a maximum nine points.
Ahmed Musa scored in the 83rd minute to help CSKA Moscow beat homers, Locomotiv Moscow 2-1 on Sunday. Musa who played as a central striker scored with a tap-in as Serge Doumbia crashed a header against the cross bar and the Nigerian applied the coup de grace. It is Musa’s second league goal after three matches.
Recently recalled Super Eagle, Obinna Nsofor was on the substitutes’ bench for all 90 minutes.

UKRAINE

Lukman Haruna continued to push for a recall to the Super Eagles with another excellent showing for Dynamo Kiev on Sunday and he capped a good performance with a thunderbolt goal in the 14th minute.
Haruna got the ball from Benoît Trémoulinas, looked up and belted a pile-driver from 40 yards beyond the flailing arms of Sevastopol goalkeeper, Igor Litovka.
Kiev went on to win 2-0. Brown Ideye came on for Dieumerci Mbokani in the 66th minute for his season debut as the Nigerian Afcon winner continues to be second choice behind the newly acquired DR Congo striker. Ideye is yet to score in the new season.

BELGIUM

Imoh Ezekiel continued on with his early season heroics with an assist as Standard Liege beat Mechelen 2-0 away at the Argos Oil Stadion Achter de Kazerne on Sunday.

Ezekiel scored two goals against KR last Thursday in a Europa League second qualifying round match. He assisted Mujangi Bia in the 57th minute. Michy Batshuayi got the second Liege goal in the 83rd minute. Michael Uchebo, who has been handed the No.10 jersey, came on in the second half for Tim Smolders in Cercle Brugge's 1-1 draw away against Mons on Saturday.

GERMANY

The 2. Bundesliga kicked off last weekend and Super Eagles striker, Anthony Ujahscored the equaliser for Cologne as they battled to a 1-1 home draw against Fortuna Dusseldorf. Ujah has completed a permanent move from Mainz which saw him sign a four-year deal before the new 2013/14 season. Ujah scored in the 67th minute after Charlison Benschop had given the visitors the lead in the 12th minute. Ujah scored 13 goals in 28 league appearances last season.
Leon Balogun also played all 90 minutes for the recently relegated Dusseldorf to continue on his 17 appearances in the Bundesliga last season. ------------------------ goal.com