Two exciting goals from Nigeria Under 23 international Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure could not give his Belgian club, Club Brugge the much needed three points at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Madrid on Tuesday night in the Matchday Two of the Uefa Champions League but it did rescue a point against the 13th times’ champions, Real Madrid.
Madrid were beaten 3-0 by Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in their first game of the lucrative club competition and needed a win against a lightweight, Club Brugge to stage a comeback but they were stunned by the Belgian League leaders who scored two first-half goals to race into a 2-0 at halftime.
It was the Nigerian striker that silent the spectators at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium with the opening goal in the ninth minute after a good pass from South African hitman, Percy Tau and he was on hand again to double their advantage in the 39th minute after he capitalized on defensive lapses from Madrid to race towards goal with only goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois at his mercy.
It was everything going well for Dennis and his Club Brugge teammates at the end of the first half but the introduction of Marcelo in place of off-colour Nacho Fernandez at the start of the second half steadied things in the defence.
It wasn’t long that Madrid skipper, Sergio Ramos reduced the arrears in the 55th minute through a fine header that needed the confirmation of the Video Assistant Referee before it was awarded.
Second bookable offense to Ruud Vormer in the 84th minute ensured that the visitors must play the final six minutes with a man less and this swung the game in favour of the home team and they did get their equaliser two minutes later through Casimero.
There was no enough time for Zinedine Zidane led side to muster a home win as they now prod Group A with a point from two games ahead of their next game with Galatasaray on October 22 in Istanbul.
It is still unclear why Dennis compatriot, David Okereke didn’t get to feature at all in the game in spite of the two goals he scored last week in a cup game which they won 3-0 against Francs Borains.
The Nigerian also started their last league game against MV Mechelen on Saturday which they triumphed 5-0 even though he was withdrawn in the 57th minute and replaced by Mbaye Diagne.
