Nigerian exports: Exciting Abiama stars again in the Bundesliga; Clinical Adeyemi fires Salzburg to victory

A couple of Nigerian prospects made the difference for their respective clubs in some of the league matches played in Europe

Dickson Abiama once again proved to be the difference-maker for Greuther Fuerth as the newly-promoted side earned their first German Bundesliga point with a fine 1-1 draw at home to Arminia Bielefield on Saturday.

Abiama supplied the assist to Fuerth’s consolation goal in their embarrassing 5-1 defeat to Stuttgart on the opening weekend of the German top flight.

And he was yet again the creative spark for Stefan Leitl’s men for the most part as they hosted their first Bundesliga game of the season at the Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer.

Abiama had the first sight of goal of the afternoon after just three minutes, but goalkeeper Stefan Ortega was well-placed to stop the Nigerian attacker’s shot.

The visitors, however, drew first blood through Fabian Klos moments before the referee signalled for the end of the first half.

But Abiama handed Greuther Fuerth a chance to level the scoreline five minutes after the break when he earned a penalty after his goalbound effort was handled by Manuel Prietl.

Branimir Hrgota duly converted the spot-kick for the home side to make it one-all with 40 minutes of the game still to play.

The home side’s cause was further helped when Alessandro Schoepf was dismissed for a second booking midway into the second period, but Fuerth could not muster a winning goal before the end.

In Austria, Karim Adeyemi netted his sixth goal in five league matches to steer Salzburg to a convincing 3-1 victory over Austria Klagenfurt.

Adeyemi only managed seven league goals in 29 league appearances for the Austrian champions last term, with much of the goalscoring burden placed on Patson Daka.

But with the Zambian striker now transferred to Leicester City, Adeyemi has been installed as the first team striker, and he has flourished in front of goal.

The 19-year-old has scored eight goals in his last eight matches across all competitions for Salzburg, needing only three minutes to break the deadlock against Austria Klagenfurt at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday.

Timossi Andersson equalised for the visitors ten minutes later, but second-half goals from Mërgim Berisha and Rasmus Kristensen sealed a perfect fifth win out of five matches for the champions.