August 24, (THEWILL) – A trio of Nigerian footballers were in the Matchday squad for Watford in their English Football League Cup competition, currently known as Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, against fellow English Premiership side Crystal Palace on Tuesday night as they beat Palace by a lone goal at home.
The victory meant that Emmanuel Dennis, William Troost-Ekong and Oghenekaro Etebo, who all featured, contributed to the progress of the Hornets to the next round of the annual knockout football competition.
Of the three, Etebo, who joined Watford on loan from Championship side Stoke City, was the most outstanding, receiving a FotMob game score of 7.3 out of 10 with the impressive way he ran the central defensive midfield position against Palace and their full strength squad.
Etebo’s passing accuracy of 89% was added to the fact that he created a goal-scoring chance in the 50th minute when his cross found teammate and compatriot Troost-Ekong but the defender’s goal-bound header was saved by the Palace keeper Jack Butland.
While the both of them played the entire 90 minutes, Dennis was a second-half substitute and was introduced at the start of proceedings after the interval to take Joshua King’s place. Although Dennis played impressively again on the night, it was Etebo’s overall performance that was most pleasing.
Etebo’s passing was always with an eye to advance the team play while ensuring that he maintained a tight compact midfield. He registered two interceptions and the same number of tackles to keep the Palace side struggling to find their leveller.
Troost-Ekong was at his best also in the four-man defense of the Hornets. With his teammates Jeremy Ngakia, Danny Rose and Francisco Sierralra, they focused most of their attention trying to keep out the marauding Palace duo of Christian Benteke, who was a substitute, Wilfried Zaha and Jordan Ayew.
There were however no goals to spark the game to life in either halves and just as it appeared like one of those EFL Carabao games to be resolved by penalty-kicks, Ashley Fletcher fired home four minutes from time to send Watford and their Nigerian trio through to the next round.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
