Nigerians Abroad: Simy Plays Himself Into Super Eagles Contention, Aribo Scores

It was another weekend of an exciting round of games across different European competitions, and some Nigerian stars made their marks

Simy Nwankwo is pushing for a Super Eagles call-up after scoring for the second consecutive game in Crotone’s loss to Fiorentina.

The 28-year-old scored a brace in Crotone’s 4-1 thrashing of Benevento last weekend and was once again on target last night- although Crotone were on the receiving end.

Simy pulled one back for Gli Squali in the 66th minute after Fiorentina had taken a two-goal lead in the first half.

The strike was Simy’s seventh goal in 19 league matches, and that puts him in contention for a place in Nigeria’s squad for March Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Joe Aribo scored his fifth league goal of the season as Rangers moved 23 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership following a 5-0 thrashing of Ross County.

Aribo is yet to hit the heights of last season, but he was brilliant on Saturday afternoon, scoring Rangers third at the Ibrox.

In Germany, Taiwo Awoniyi was unable to add to his tally. Still, he notched his third assist of the season after setting up Marcus Ingvartsen in Union Berlin’s 2-1 loss at Augsburg. 

The Nigerian is one of the players that could find his way into Gernot Rohr’s squad for March qualifiers, and he boosted his chances with another impressive performance.

Finally, both Kelechi Nwakali and Samuel Chukwueze were missing as Huesca and Villarreal played out a barren draw in their Spanish top-flight encounter.

Chukwueze missed the clash due to injury while Nwakali was an unused substitute for Huesca.