Ighalo Plays One Minute In UCL, Abraham Benched, Bonaventure, Zaidu Shine

Manchester United of England striker, Odion Jude Ighalo finally got his debut in the UEFA Champions League, but it came on a night he went on as a 90th minute substitute and his side lost 3-1 at home against Paris-Saint Germaine of France, BSNSports.com.ng reports. While the Nigerian-born duo of Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori were surprisingly both benched by another English Premier League club, Chelsea, in a stunning 4-0 win away to Sevilla of Spain, Ighalo did not have any favours at home, as Brazilian star, Neymar got an early goal that got PSG on the right foot. The French champions are poised to win Group H if they beat Istanbul Basaksehir of Turkey in their last group game next Tuesday, as The Parisians have head-to-head advantage over United courtesy their 3-1 victory at Old Trafford on Wednesday night. After getting hope from a deflected goal credited to Marcus Rashford, before Marquinhos put the visitors 2-1 up with a close range effort in the 69th minute, United chased an equaliser that would have seen them qualify for the round of 16 and The Rd Devils’ coach, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer introduced Ighalo off the bench. Ighalo’s entry, though, turned awry, as United conceded the third goal, with Neymar scoring again after a quick counter attack, and many of the home fans were left baffled by Solskjaer’s decision to send on the former Super Eagles’ star so late in the game. Incidentally, while Ighalo got off United’s bench in place of Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the last minute of their 3-1 loss at home, it was a different story in the same group for Azubuike Okechukwu, who was not dressed by Basaksehir in their 4-3 loss at home against RB Leipzig of Germany. Also in Wednesday’s Champions League action, Abraham and Tomori were both benched for 90 minutes, as Chelsea of England won 4-0 away to Sevilla, while Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure got full duration action with Club Brugge of Belgium, who had David Chidozie Okereke on as an 88th minute substitute in their 3-0 win against visiting Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia. All this came 24 hours after FC Porto of Portugal left-back, Zaidu Sanusi gained plaudits from his coach, Sergio Conceicao, following a key role played by the Super Eagles’ rookie in helping the Portuguese champions qualify for this season’s UCL round of 16. Sanusi was in sterling form and even stopped a goal-bound ball on the line, as Porto played out a barren draw with Manchester City of England on Tuesday night to guarantee runners-up spot in the group with 10 points from five matches. Sanusi, who only last week netted his first Champions League goal in his team’s win away to Olympique Marseille of France, was again impressive for Porto and helped them ensure that they achieved yet another clean sheet, much to the delight of Conceicao. Conceicao beamed with excitement: “We achieved qualification with an impressive series of games on our part. We cannot forget to look at our XI and see Nanu, Zaidu, Manafá, Evanilson, Fábio Vieira. “To see all these people with little experience in the Champions League and where they were a short time ago. There is a great organisation to my team; our goal was achieved on full merit.”