HOW AFRICAN FOOTBALLERS FAIRED AT THE WEEKEND

Chelsea and Nigeria winger Victor Moses ended a four-year English Premier League goal drought by completing the scoring in a 3-0 rout of Burnley at the weekend.

The Lagos-born 25-year-old attacker is back with the west London club after one-season loans to Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham United.

African Footballer of the Year and Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a brace for Borussia Dortmund in a season-opening 2-1 Bundesliga victory over Mainz.

ENGLAND

VICTOR MOSES (Chelsea)

The Nigeria international scored his first Premier League goal for four years when, having been played in by fellow substitute Pedro, he slid the ball in from close range in the 89th minute to set the seal on unbeaten Chelsea’s 3-0 win at home to Burnley.

RIYAD MAHREZ (Leicester City)

One of the stars of the Foxes’ shock march to the title last season, the Algeria winger had a penalty saved at 2-0 in what turned out to be a 2-1 win over Swansea as Leicester recorded their first league victory of the season. He also saw a shot creep past Lukasz Fabianski’s left-hand post before the goalkeeper saved his spot-kick. It was Mahrez’s third failure from his last four Premier League penalties.

LAMINE KONE (Sunderland)

Had a generally sound game in defence for the Black Cats at Southampton and the Ivory Coast centre-back might have opened the scoring in an eventual 1-1 draw but shot wide after being teed up by Patrick van Aanholt.

NORDIN AMRABAT (Watford)

The Morocco midfielder made his presence felt as Watford went down 3-1 to Arsenal, bundling Alexis Sanchez to the turf as he inadvertently clattered his opponent in the head — leaving him dazed. There appeared to be no lasting damage, with Sanchez among Arsenal’s scorers.

SPAIN

KEVIN-PRINCE BOATENG, NABIL EL ZHAR (Las Palmas)

Boateng’s brilliant start to life in the Canary Islands continued as Las Palmas went top of La Liga with a 5-1 thrashing of Granada. The Ghanaian headed home his second goal in as many games to put the hosts 2-1 up early in the second half. Moroccan winger El Zhar scored twice and set up the fourth goal.

ITALY

KWADWO ASAMOAH (Juventus)

Just how long Asamoah will keep his starting place in the Juventus midfield remains to be seen, but the Ghanaian dynamo won the plaudits of coach Massimiliano Allegri after a “solid” performance in a 1-0 win at Lazio that maintained the champions’ 100% start to the campaign. Asamoah may even have had his name in lights if Lazio ‘keeper Federico Marchetti had not somehow flapped his speculative effort away from the top corner of his goal.

FRANK KESSIE (Atalanta)

Teenage Ivorian defender Kessie hit his third goal in two Serie A games for Atalanta when he pounced on a loose ball in front of the Sampdoria goal to beat Marco Sportiello in the 27th minute in Genoa, but the home side recovered to win 2-1.

SAPHIR TAIDER (Bologna)

Taider and the rest of his Bologna team probably thought it was ‘game on’ when the Algerian levelled for the visitors after hosts Torino had opened the scoring. But Bologna were awful for much of the rest of the game, and ‘Toro’ capitalised to triumph 5-1.

FRANCE

NICOLAS NKOULOU (Lyon)

Cameroon defender Nkoulou, signed to replace Cameroon-born France international Samuel Umtiti, who was sold to Barcelona in mid-year, conceded a penalty for a foul on Cape Verde striker Julio Tavares as Lyon lost 4-2 at Dijon.

MOUSTAPHA DIALLO (Guingamp)

Senegalese midfielder Diallo scored his second goal this season to help Guingamp to a 2-0 win at Nancy that leaves them surprisingly top of the Ligue 1 table.

SERGE AURIER (Paris Saint-Germain)

Ivory Coast defender Aurier had an eventful evening as champions PSG lost 3-1 at Monaco. He set up Edinson Cavani’s goal that gave Paris hope after they had fallen two goals behind at the Stade Louis II, but then put through his own net 10 minutes from time to confirm the defeat.

GERMANY

PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG (Borussia Dortmund)

After Robert Lewandowski, last season’s top scorer in Germany with 30 goals, scored a hat-trick for Bayern Munich on Friday, ‘Auba’ went and netted twice at home for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday with a first-half header and a late penalty in the 2-1 win over Mainz.

LAMINE SANE, FALLOU DIAGNE (Werder Bremen)

Along with the rest of the Bremen team, the Senegalese centre-backs had a night to forget as Bayern ran riot in a 6-0 thrashing of Werder in the opening 2016/17 Bundesliga fixture. The pair were at fault for allowing Lewandowski to get in behind the Bremen defence for his first goal. Fallou failed to close down Munich captain Philipp Lahm for the third.

Source: Sportline