Izuchukwu OkosiThe European football leagues lived up to their billing over the weekend and on Monday night as football faithful witnessed great games.
Prime Business Africa‘s Izuchukwu Okosi presents a combined XI of the best performing players from Europe’s top leagues in a 3-4-3 formation.
GOALKEEPER
Marco Silvestre
In goal is Udinese’s Marco Silvestre who was at his elastic best and saved many goal-bound shots as Udinese pipped home side AC Milan 1-0 at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on Saturday evening.
The win for the Zebras halted a run of four games without a win; three draws and a defeat.
DEFENDERS
Araujo
Barcelona defender Araujo saved the blushes of Barcelona as he came up with a late goal in the 90th minute to nick a win against Real Sociedad at the Donastia – San Sebastian.
Aside the goal he was dominant in the defence for Xavi Hernandez’s side.
Adrien Tameze
The Lille born central defender was formidable at the back in Torino’s 2-1 home win against Sassuolo.
But it was his two assists for the Serie A side that got a lot of people talking. He provided the goals for the duo of Arnaldo Sanabria and Nikola Vlasic.
Moussa Niakhate
Central defender Niakhate was impressive in Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 home win over in-form Aston Villa at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon.
Olie Watkins who has had a great season so far could not go past him and he also progressed out of the back line in promising fashion.
MIDFIELDERS
Issa Kabore
At the base of the midifeld is Burkina Faso international Issa Kabore who is deployed in the defensive midifeld role for his battling display in Luton Town’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool.
Kabore made progressive carries with the ball and laid on the low cross for Tahith Chong’s 80th minute goal.
Weston Mckennie
USA international Weston Mckennie had a great game for Juventus as they defeated Fiorentina 1-0 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
Mckennie made six tackles, three interceptions, eight clearances, blocked one shot and made one key pass over 90 minutes.
Hakan Cahanoglu
Turkey international Hakan Cahanoglu has scored in successive games for Inter Milan and was in his elements over the weekend as the Nerazzuri defeated Atalanta 2-1.
Nigeria’s Ademola Lookman was on the opposing side and in fact provided the assist for Atalanta’s goal.
Bruno Fernandez
Manchester United ‘got out of jail’ Saturday lunch time with a narrow 1-0 away win at the Craven Cottage against Fulham.
The game was heading a stalemate when the Portugal international and captain of United, Bruno Fernandez guided a low shot that saw the ball nestle at the back of the net.
ATTACKERS
Luis Diaz
Colombian international Diaz came off the substitute bench to restore parity for Liverpool when it seemed they would bow to a 1-0 defeat to promoted Luton Town.
Diaz leapt high to head home Alexander Trent-Arnold’s cross albeit the ball needed a deflection to go past the Luton keeper.
Nicolas Jackson
The Chelsea striker who had been struggling for form since his summer arrival from La Liga side, Villarreal, grabbed his first Premier League hattrick on Monday night in the 4-1 romp over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Jackson and the entire Chelsea side had a laboured first half performance but improved significantly in the second half.
Harry Kane
England captain Harry Kane also scored a treble over the weekend as he notched up three goals in Bayern Munich’s 4-0 thumping of Borrusia Dortmund in the Klassiker on Saturday evening.
The goals has seen Kane go top of the goalscorers chart in the German Bundesliga with 15 goals.
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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