Super Eagles’ invitee, Umar Sadiq continued to enjoy rave review in the Spanish La Liga Smartbank after he notched his 20th goal of the season in Almeria’s 2-1 home win over Logrones yesterday.
The crucial home win secured the Rojiblancos a place in the play-off round even with a game to the end of the Spanish lower league regular season.
Almeria are seek a return to the top-flight having suffered demotion to the lower league since the 2014-15 season.
Sadiq’s 20 goals have been crucial to Almeria’s charge for promotion this season and were close to pick one of the two automatic promotion tickets before they fell by the way side and ceded it to Espanyol and Mallorca.
In the win over stubborn Logrones, Sadiq put Almeria in the driver’s seat with the opening goal in the second minute and Juan Brandariz doubled the lead in the 27th minute. The Audalusian based side had the chance to put the game to bed in the dying moments of the first half from the penalty spot but Sadiq inexplicably spurned it to miss the chance to net his 21st goal in the league.
Leonardo Ruiz reduced the tally for Logrones with 23 minutes left to play but Almeria held to win the game 2-1 and thus moved to 70 points from 41 games. They are through to the playoffs where four teams will contest for the remaining ticket to the La Liga Santander.
The Nigerian who missed out of selection for the International friendly with Cameroon in Austria next month due to the club’s commitments has scored 28 goals from 52 games in all competitions and he has made nine assists.
Sadiq fired six goals from 10 matches for Partizan Belgrade of Serbia before he got his move to Spain in October last year. He bagged two further goals from three Copa del Rey appearances to make it a barnstorming season thus far for the former AS Roma trainee.
The Nigerian with 20 goals is currently third in the race for the highest scorer in the Spanish lower league behind Espanyol’s Raul de Tomas (23 goals), and Uros Djurdjevic of Sporting Gijon (22 goals). But he will have the chance to finish the season with a flourish at Sporting Gijon on Sunday in the final game of the regular season.
