Samuel Chukwueze scored a goal and had four assists to help Villarreal to the Europa League title.
To the chagrin of Manchester United fans, Nigerians lent their support to Samuel Chukwueze in the lead up to Villarreal’s Europa League final clash against Manchester United on Wednesday, May 26, 2021.
This came after Wilfred Ndidi, and Kelechi Iheanacho helped Leicester City to win the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday, May 15.
The bants dominated Nigerian social mediasphere, and Nigerian Manchester United fans tried to appeal to the emotions of their fellow Nigerians by listing a certain Shola Shoretire, an English player born to a Nigerian father as a Nigerian.
Samuel Chukwueze (Instagram/Samuel Chukwueze)
Samuel Chukwueze scored a goal and had four assists to help Villarreal to the Europa League title.
To
the chagrin of Manchester United fans, Nigerians lent their support to
Samuel Chukwueze in the lead up to Villarreal’s Europa League final
clash against Manchester United on Wednesday, May 26, 2021.
This
came after Wilfred Ndidi, and Kelechi Iheanacho helped Leicester City to
win the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday, May 15.
The
bants dominated Nigerian social mediasphere, and Nigerian Manchester
United fans tried to appeal to the emotions of their fellow Nigerians by
listing a certain Shola Shoretire, an English player born to a Nigerian
father as a Nigerian.
That didn’t work on Wednesday night, Chukwueze, with the support of Nigerians, became a Europa League winner.
Villarreal beat Manchester United on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the final played at the Polsat Plus Arena Gdansk in Poland.
Chukwueze
was not in action in the game after failing to fully recover from a
hamstring injury he suffered in the semi-finals against Arsenal in early
May.
His absence didn’t matter after the game as he received a
winners’ medal, the first of his senior career. He already won the FIFA
U17 World Cup with Nigeria in 2015.
He purred about the Nigerian support while celebrating in the dressing room after the game.
"I too love Nigerians, the way Nigerian people take support me today, omo una too much," he said in Pidgin English.
"The
way una take support me today, omo Twitter. twitter people una too
much. Una too sweet Nigerians. If I nor come from Nigeria this world for
nor sweet."
The Europa League win puts a great end to a season
that has seen the 22-year-old blossom into a player that has added
decisive contributions to his nimble feet and close control.
It didn’t start well for him under Unai Emery, who at first didn’t trust the Nigerian.
At first, he had to compete with former loanee Takefusa Kubo and only made six league starts in the first half of the season.
Surgery
for a groin injury further disrupted his season, but admirably, the
forward bounced back and posted some strong performances, which earned
him more minutes on the pitch.
Emery trusted him more, and he repaid that trust with some fine performances.
He
was outstanding in the Europa League; he was good in their round-of-16
ties against Dynamo Kyiv and grabbed an assist in the second leg.
He
had a Man of the Match performance in a league game against Atletico
Madrid in February and, in April, grabbed a league brace in the-a career
first- to end a league drought that had started in November 2020.
Samuel Chukwueze played 11 Europa League games for Villarreal this season (Twitter/Villarreal)
Another
significant contribution came in the quarterfinals of the Europa League
with a fine performance and an assist across two legs against Dinamo
Zagreb.
He had some bright moments in the first leg semi-final
against Arsenal. He started the move for the Yellow Submarine’s opening
goal of that game, dribbling past Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos before
laying the ball, albeit accidentally to Manu Trigueros to finish past
the Arsenal goalkeeper.
Despite those bright moments, he missed
an opportunity to truly show his qualities at that level and trouble
Arsenal’s emergency left-back Xhaka.
There was some spark in the second leg at the Emirates before he was taken off after suffering a hamstring injury.
In this successful Europa League season, the 22-year-old scored a goal and had four assists for the eventual winners.
