Nigeria International, Taiwo Awoniyi, has equalled the record of Mohamed Salah and Emmanuel Adebayor as the African footballers with the longest scoring run in the English Premier League.
Awoniyi scored in the second minute to put Nottingham Forest 1-0 ahead against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The former Union Berlin attacker has now scored in seven consecutive Premier League matches for Forest, just as Salah and Adebayor did with Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.
Taiwo Awoniyi is the third African player in Premier League history to score in seven consecutive matches 🇳🇬@NFFC pic.twitter.com/AD7aoBJxa9
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 26, 2023
Awoniyi, last Friday, netted in a 2-1 win over Sheffield United to equal the scoring record of Stan Collymore in six consecutive Premier League games for Forest between March and April 1995.
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His scoring run is now the longest ever by a Nigerian in the competition and he is now the first player to score in Forest’s opening three top-flight matches of a season since Peter Davenport in 1984-85.
The Super Eagles striker a fortnight ago netted in a 2-1 loss to Arsenal to become only the second Forest player to score in five straight EPL appearances, also matching Collymore’s feat.
Awoniyi had become the first player since 1995 to score in four straight Premier League games for Forest as the match-winner when the club defeated Arsenal 1-0 at the City Ground back in May.
The 26-year-old has so far scored 13 goals in 30 Premier League appearances for the Tricky Tees since joining the club in the summer of 2022.
Meanwhile, fellow Nigerian Ola Aina started against Man United after his return to training following a groin issue that kept him out of the win over Sheffield while Emmanuel Dennis was not included in Forest’s match-day squad as expected.
Massive comeback
United started well, Matt Turner into the action inside a minute when he was only able to spill Antony’s left-footed curled shot for a corner.
Brennan Johnson was able to clear the danger from the Reds penalty area from the resultant corner. His clearance was met by the head of Morgan Gibbs-White who was able to find the oncoming run of the in-form Nigerian, Awoniyi who took the ball from inside of his own half and coolly slotted the ball past Andre Onana to give Forest the lead inside 90 seconds of kick-off.
The Reds troubled the hosts again inside 4 minutes after the marauding Johnson was fouled on the outside right. Gibbs-White whipped in a delightful cross and the ball cannoned off the head of the unexpecting Willy Boly and rifled into the Manchester United goal to give Forest a 2-0 lead much to the delight of the travelling fans who jubilantly celebrated the early lead.
Turner was called into action again in the 17th minute when he was able to get down to Bruno Fernandes long-range dipping effort and turn the ball away from danger. However, he was only able to clear the ball away from immediate danger, but moments later Marcus Rashford was on hand to fire the ball back across the six-yard box and found the feet of the Danish international, Christian Eriksen, who was able to beat Scott McKenna to turn the ball home to reduce the Forest lead to one goal.
Manchester United drew level in the 52nd minute when a well-worked free-kick routine saw Rashford’s ball into the box, turned back across goal by the head of Bruno Fernandes, and Casemiro was able to bundle the ball over the line from close range.
Moments later Turner saw himself called into action once again as he spectacularly pushed Antony’s shot from the edge of the area out for a corner when it seemed destined to find the top corner.
Forest were reduced to ten men when captain, Joe Worrall, was shown a straight red card for bringing down Bruno Fernandes on the edge of the area as he attempted to latch on to a ball over the top of the Reds defence. Worrall remained on the field for a lengthy VAR consultation, but the decision stood, and Forest were forced to play the remaining twenty minutes a man down.
Things went from bad to worse for Forest when Danilo brought down Rashford inside the area. Bruno Fernandes stepped up to take the penalty and tucked the ball past Turner, who dived the right way into the bottom left corner of the goal.
In a last-ditch attempt to salvage a point, Forest introduced Chris Wood and Anthony Elanga in place of Awoniyi and Danilo for the final ten minutes.
Willy Boly nearly got his second and Forest’s third when Wood picked him out and his speculative effort from just inside the area was tipped around the post by the Cameroonian stopper, Onana.
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