The race for the top scorer in the UEFA Europa League is shaping up to be a two horse race between Nigerian striker Victor Boniface and England international forward Marcus Rashford, OGN reports.
Rashford was missing today as Manchester United crumble at the death to draw 2-2 against Sevilla, a game they were leading 2-0 with three minutes left to play. In his absence Union Saint-Gilloise Boniface drew level with him on the scorers chart.
Boniface struck in the 51st minute of the game for his sixth goal of the campaign but it wasn’t enough for his team to claim a first leg quarter final win over Bayern Leverkusen, who drew level with just eight minutes of regulation time left to play in the game.
22 year old forward made the provisional list of players for the senior national team of Nigeria ahead of the back to back AFCON qualifiers games against Guinea Bissau but wasn’t selected in the final 20 man list with coach Jose Peseiro going for the trio of Paul Onuachu, Victor Osimhen and Terem Moffi.
Both teams will be up against each other next week and with Rashford still expected to be missing for the return leg of the Sevilla game, Boniface will fancy his chances of pulling clear off the English man in the race to be top scorer in the tournament.
However both players should be wary of Feyenoord forward Santiago Gimenez who is on five goals as well. The Mexican fired blanks against Roma and will hope to be on target in the second leg next week.
Mohammed Mowiz