Image: Victor Osimhen — pino_alpino / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
If you follow the Super Eagles by tracking the weekend scores across Europe, you had plenty to keep you busy — and the full range of emotions, from the sublime to the please-don’t-show-the-replay. Here’s how Nigeria’s finest got on.
The highs
Victor Osimhen is simply on another level right now, bullying defences and chasing records as if he has a personal vendetta against goalkeepers. We broke his hot streak down in full — read it here. Over in Spain, Ademola Lookman keeps growing into his role under Diego Simeone, with Atlético grinding out a win at Levante.
The grafters
Not every contribution trends on social media. At Villa Park, Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey dug in to haul Fulham a hard-earned point — Iwobi running the show, Bassey throwing himself in front of everything. The unglamorous stuff that wins managers’ trust.
The ouch
Spare a thought for Maduka Okoye, who had the kind of afternoon every keeper dreads as Roma ran riot at Udinese. And in France, Josh Maja grabbed a consolation for Le Havre in a heavy defeat to PSG — a goal for the scrapbook on a day to forget for the team.
The bigger picture
The theme repeats every week: Nigeria’s talent pool abroad is absurdly deep. Strikers scoring for fun, a defender trusted in the Premier League, a forward winning over the most demanding manager in Spain. The only lingering frustration is a Super Eagles side that still hasn’t turned all this individual brilliance into results in green — a debate for another day, and one we’ll keep having.
Our take: on this evidence, the raw materials for a serious Super Eagles side are all there, scattered across Europe. Now someone just has to make the whole add up to more than the parts.
