It was another weekend of fascinating football in various leagues across Europe and other parts of the globe with the English Premier League entering match day 15 that witnessed some African players making the headlines. Ivory Coast’s Wilfred Bony returned to the scoresheet since he last scored more than a year ago, but the Ivorian’s lone goal wasn’t enough for Swansea, as Senegal’s Mame Diouf scored the winning goal to secure all three points for Stock City.
Mohamed Sallah remains the top premier league goal scorer and was part of Liverpool’s 5-1 win against Brighton. The Egyptian forward provided an assist to Brazilian Roberto Firmino who scored a brace in the team’s well-deserved victory.
Andre Ayew, Cheikhou Kouyaté, and Diafra Sakho’s involvement for West Ham United was unable to prevent league leaders Manchester City from winning their 13th consecutive EPL match after David Silva scored a late winning goal to extend Pep Guardiola’s side lead on top of the tale to eight points. City will be hoping to widen the gap this weekend in the Manchester derby.
Cédric Bakambu’s Villarreal struggle continued over the weekend after a 3-1 loss to Leganes with Moroccan midfielder Nabil El Zhar scoring one of Leganes’ goals to inflate the wounds on Villarreal. Since their last win against Malaga on November 5 the team remains in the 6th position with top scorer Bakambu hanging behind Messi with 9 goals. Barcelona remains top of the Liga with five points ahead of Valencia.
The race for the 2017 Italian Serie A title continues to intensify with just one point separating the top three sides. Juventus’ 1-0 win over Napoli was a stumbling block to narrow the gap between the two sides. It was yet another draw for Torino after Cameroon’s Nicolas N’Koulou’s 45th-minute goal was washed out by Atalanta’s Josip Iličić to level the scores.
Bayern München extended their lead to six points on the German Bundesliga table ahead of Naby Keita’s RB Leipzig following a 3-1 victory over Hannover 96 at the Allianz Arena. Schalke 04 failed to book the second spot on the table after securing another and second consecutive draw. Morocco’s Amine Harit scored Schalke’s second goal, making it two out of his last two games.
Kelvin-Prince Boateng helped Eintracht Frankfurt move to eighth place after scoring the winning goal in the 80th minute as the team collected their second win out of last five matches.
In the France league during the weekend, Ivory Coast’s Nicolas Pépé was a lucky one after his 63rd minute goal for Lillie FC remained the only goal of the match after Lillie’s goalkeeper saved a late penalty to prevent a draw with Toulouse.
Another African Wahbi Khazri of Tunisia helped Rennes clam 6th position on the table after scoring one of two goals against Amiens FC. This was also a similar situation for Ivory Coast’s Gnaly Cornet after he scored Olympique Lyonnais’ first goal in their 2-1 win over Caen.
Gnaly’s compatriot Giovanni-Guy Sio was also on target for Montpellier when he scored a lone goal that was equalized by Marseille. Paris Saint-Germain remains top of the league table with 9 points ahead of Olympique Lyonnais.
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