The Nigerian international soccer star Taiwo Awoniyi has finally scored his first goal in the German top flight. Awoniyi ended his wait for his first Bundesliga goal on Sunday when he came off the bench to help his team Mainz to a crucial 2-2 away draw against FC Koln. A well-worked move from Mainz saw Bote Baku get in behind the Koln defence, and Awoniyi was on hand to tap home, halving the deficit to just one. Mainz scored a second to earn a point through Pierre Kunde.
Awoniyi, 22, is currently enjoying his sixth loan spell away from Liverpool at Mainz since joining the Reds in the summer of 2015. He has enjoyed spells with Frankfurt, NEC Nijmegen, Mouscron twice, KAA Gent and now Mainz. The Nigerian striker was handed a chance to impress in Germany’s top tier this season after scoring 14 goals last term for Belgian outfit Mouscron. He has finally showed what his salt is worth in his seventh appearance for Mainz. Awoniyi said, “I’m really happy about scoring my first goal for Mainz! We came back very well as a team today and fought our way back into the match!”
With the result from Sunday’s outing, Mainz are four points away from relegation zone given that the club has now accrued 27 points from 26 league outings while Cologne stays in the 10th position with 33 points from the same number of games. Awoniyi will be hoping to continue with this newly found form when Mainz host title-chasing RB Leipzig in the next round of games, the expectations for him to be great is heavy as he is motivated to pave the way for other great Nigerian players to have scored in the Bundesliga as they have for him.
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