Izuchukwu Okosi
EDINSON Cavani scored an equaliser to deny Newcastle United a rather deserved victory at King James Park on Monday night in the English Premier League.
The Red Devils miseed the opportunity to climb to fifth place in the table after the 1-1 draw.
Ralf Rangnick’s side trailed to Allan Saint-Maximin’s eye-catching seventh minute goal and were out-played for long periods at St James’ Park.
But Cavani came off the bench to bag his first goal since October in the second half, ensuring Rangnick avoided his first defeat in four games as United’s interim manager.
United remain in seventh place in the Premier League, seven points behind fourth placed Arsenal with two games in hand.
Rangnick had won his first two league games since taking over from the axed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but neither performance was especially convincing and this was the poorest effort of the bunch.
United did have the excuse of the Covid outbreak that forced them into a 16-day period of inactivity since they won 1-0 at Norwich on 11 December.
Their games against Brentford and Brighton were postponed, with the club’s training ground shut for four days.
But regardless of the coronavirus chaos, Rangnick will know United must improve dramatically if they are to secure a top four finish.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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