Super Eagles duo of Samuel Chukwueze and Peter Olayinka will be filing out for their respective clubs for the Europa League quarter-final fixtures on Thursday, April 8.
Chukwueze’s Villareal will visit Dinamo Zagreb, while Olayinka’s Slavia Praha will take a trip to London to square off against Arsenal.
The Nigeria internationals played a crucial role in their teams’ qualification. Chukwueze grabbed an assist in the reverse fixture against Dynamo Kyiv, which his side won 2-0.
On the other hand, Olayinka bagged a goal and an assist to help his club progress to the last eight at the expense of Scottish side Rangers.
The forwards will be hoping to see their teams advance to the semi-final and thus, become the first Nigerians to play in that stage of the competition since Alex Iwobi – for Arsenal in 2018.
Chukwueze was named in Gernot Rohr’s squad last month for the double-header AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Lesotho – featuring in both encounters as Nigeria secured back-to-back victories to qualify for the tournament slated for Cameroon in 2022.
However, Olayinka was invited despite putting up a five-star performance in the Europa League knock-out fixtures to oust Leicester City and Steven Gerrard’s Rangers.
Interestingly, Olayinka’s Czech club had knocked out four other Nigerians – Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun, who reached the knock-out stages.
So far, the 25-year-old has scored three goals in nine games for the Red and Whites this term.
Discussion about this post