Asisat Oshoala scored a brace on Wednesday night in Barcelona’s UEFA Women’s Champions League 6-0 win against Rosengard.
Asisat Oshoala
Super Falcons ace hit twice to help Barcelona set a record in the Champions League.
Asisat Oshoala scored a brace on Wednesday night in Barcelona’s UEFA Women’s Champions League 6-0 win against Rosengard.
Her goals helped Barcelona set the record for the most scored by a team in the competition’s group stage.
Oshoala’s brace was the 24th and 25th goal for Barcelona in the group stage of the champions league, the previous record was 24.
Oshoala’s first goal came around the 10-minute mark and sent the Spotify Camp Nou rocking.
She grabbed her record-setting second goal six minutes after the first.
Barcelona went on to score four more goals, including a free-kick from centre-back Mapi Leon, but Asisat’s record-setting goal was the most important, as they cruised into the Quarter final of the competition.
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Super Falcons midfielder Halimatu Ayinde came on for Rosengard around the hour mark, in what looked like a move to clog central spaces and avoid a bigger scoreline.
Barcelona dominated the opening exchanges of the game as expected, but the breakthrough did not come through until the 10th minute.
Strikers like Oshoala make their own luck, and that was the case of the opening goal of the game, where her instinctive positioning put her in the path of Aitana Bonmati’s strike that crashed the woodwork.
It was not enough to just be on the path of the ball, as Rosengard’s Jessica Wik was nearby. However, Asisat was faster than her, sharper, hungrier and more intelligent, as she got herself between Wik and the ball, pouncing like an apex predator to give her team the lead.
Her second goal was even better than the first, it has every right to call itself a record-setting goal.
Mariona Caldentey put up a well-flighted ball into the box, trusting her striker to do something with it. The height of the cross ensured it ignored approaches, travelling towards an anticipated Oshoala waiting at the back post.
Oshoala’s contact was clean and thorough. It was not enough for her to just head the ball into the net, she made sure to head it into the roof of the net. Away from doubt and the out-stretched reach of the keeper.
From then on it was cruise control for Barca, the Nigerian international had set the tone for the game as she set Barcelona’s record.
The third came soon enough, a free-kick on the edge of the box from centre-back Mapi Leon.
Fridolina Rolfo got the fourth from a thunderous strike. The fifth came almost immediately after, as captain Marta Torrejon pounced on a goalkeeper error.
Nigerian international Ayinde came in on the hour mark, for her second appearance in the competition.
Even Ayinde’s dogged tackling and energy could do nothing to help Rosengard prevent the sixth. Irene Paredes was left unmarked from a corner and she headed past Angel Mukasa.
Oshoala was recently awarded the pichichi for scoring the most goals in the league last season(20). However, she had to share the award with Geyse Ferreira who played for Madrid CFF last season.
She now shares the Barcelona starting striker role with the 24-year-old Brazillian, who moved to the Catalan giants over the summer.
Geyse has been preferred over Oshoala in recent games, starting one more champions league game than the Nigerian, but Oshoala has a better minute-to-goal ratio.
Oshoala’s brace would mean a selection headache for manager Jonatan Giraldez in the coming games.
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