The African stars were on target as their teams emerged victorious in the first leg of the European competition’s play-off round
Karim Adeyemi was on song as Salzburg secured a hard-fought 2-1 win over Brondby in Tuesday’s Champions League fixture.
Heading into the encounter staged at the Red Bull Arena, the visitors had never defeated any Austrian team when playing in Europe.
Powered by the desire to break this agelong jinx, the reigning Danish Superliga champions began the game on a solid note as they dominated possession.
That yielded a positive result as Mikael Uhre put them ahead in the fourth minute. Controlling a pass from Ghana prospect Kevin Mensah, the Danish forward twisted and turned in the box before unleashing an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Philipp Koehn.
Despite the hosts’ attacking forays, they were unable to level scores as they went into the halftime break with a goal deficit.
Nonetheless, Salzburg turned things around in the 56th minute thanks to an equalizer from Super Eagles prospect Adeyemi who profited from good work by Brenden Aaronson.
With the game looking destined to end in a 1-1 draw, Aaronson scored the winner in the 90th minute – showing great composure to bury Oumar Solet’s pass past goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
While Adeyemi was subbed off for Switzerland international of Nigerian origin Noah Okafor in the 82nd minute, Mali’s Mohamed Camara was in action from start to finish.
Whereas, Camara’s compatriot Mamady Diambou and Guinea’s Daouda Guindo were unused substitutes by manager Matthias Jaissle.
Elsewhere, Adama Traore was on song twice as FC Sheriff silenced Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 in Moldova.
The Mali international put his team ahead on the stroke of half time as he slotted past onrushing goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic after he was teed up by Brazilian defender Cristiano.
Although Dinamo dominated possession, they were indecisive in the final third and that cost them dearly. The Moldovan champions took advantage of that to get their second goal in the 54th minute through Dimitris Kolovos thanks to an assist from Guinea’s Momo Yansane.
The visitors’ ambition of a positive away result got quashed in the 80th minute as Traore completed his double to the delight of the home fans.
With this result, Sheriff are on the brink of Champions League history and they could be the first-ever Moldovan side to reach the group stage of the tournament if they keep things tight in the second leg that holds on August 25, 2021.
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