It should have been a battle between Ramon Azeez and Samuel Chukwueze in the Spanish La Liga Santander tonight when Granada host Villarreal but the former has been shipped out on loan by Granada to Cartagena in the Spanish lower league for the remainder of the season. Chukwueze has not had a fantastic season too, with only one goal from 22 games. The Nigerian struggled in the Super Eagles’ two AFCON qualifying matches against Benin Republic and Lesotho. He played 81 minutes of the Yellow Submarines’ 2-1 win over Cadiz before the international break.
In the German Bundesliga, Kevin Akpoguma is still a doubt for Hoffenheim who visit Augsburg today as he is yet to regain full match fitness after his recovery from an injury he sustained in January. He has played in two test games for the reserves and should be thrown into the fray in the coming weeks. The 25-year-old has played 13 league games before the injury.
Another Nigerian neither in nor out is Emmanuel Dennis who moved to FC Cologne in the winter transfer. Dennis has struggled for form and consistency since his loan switch from Club Brugge. His coach, Markus Gisdol dropped him to the bench in their 2-2 home draw to Borussia Dortmund before the international break. It is not sure if he will have any role to play when Cologne face Wolfsburg today.
Cologne who are 16th on the log with 23 points need Dennis who has played seven games to be firing on all cylinders for them to avoid relegation. Kingsley Ehizibue has Nigerian roots but currently a national of the Netherlands. He is a teammate of Dennis at Cologne and has been used 15 times in the league this campaign alone. He was on for 82 minutes against Dortmund. The other Nigerian at Cologne, Tolu Arokodare seems to have been frozen out of the team.
Taiwo Awoniyi was in sparkling form when he got injured for Union Berlin on February 13th, 2021. He is yet to recover from the torn muscle bundle injury and his recovery date has been fixed for April 20th if there is no relapse. Awoniyi has 19 games with five goals before the setback.
