Nigerians Abroad: Awoniyi On Fire, Ideye Breaks Scoring Duck

Nigerian forward Taiwo Awoniyi netted his third goal in his last five Bundesliga appearances as Union Berlin played out an exciting 2-2 draw at Stuttgart on Wednesday night.

Marvin Friedrich headed the visitors in front as early as the fourth minute of the encounter before Awoniyi, left unmarked in the hosts’ goal area, powered home a classy header from a difficult position to double his side’s advantage midway through the second half.

But the 23-year-old’s strike ultimately proved not enough to hand Union Berlin all the three points at stake as their hosts fought back with two Kalajdzic goals late into the game.

Awoniyi, though, will be pleased with how his latest German adventure is progressing.

The former Mainz star now boasts three goals in ten showings for the Iron Ones, with all the goals coming in his last five games.

The on-loan Liverpool forward opened his season account in Union Berlin’s 2-1 victory at Cologne in November and added his second a fortnight later as his side fell 3-1 at city rivals Hertha Berlin early in December.

In Turkey, former Super Eagles star Brown Ideye got his first goal in almost three months, but it still did not help Goztepe avoid crashing out of the Turkish Cup after losing 4-5 (after extra-time) to Bursaspor.

Ideye’s near three-month wait to find the net ended on Tuesday night as he directed home a fine strike to bring the scores back to 1-1 just past the half-hour mark.

But the game finished 3-3 after regulation time before the visitors scored two more goals during extra-time to advance to the next stage of the competition.

Ideye, who joined Goztepe In a free transfer from Greek side Aris in August, claimed his first goal for the club in a 2-1 friendly win over Menemenspor a few days later.

The former West Bromwich Albion star then opened his league account in September in the 2-2 draw to Gaziantepspor.