Greatest UEFA Performances By African Footballers

Not everyone has the honour of scoring on their Champions League debut, not to mention scoring three. However, a young Yakubu did this against the Greek giants on his maiden appearance in Europe’s most sought-after competition.

The Nigerian forward opened the scoring for Maccabi Haifa just before the half-hour mark, before second-half strikes sealed his treble of goals.

By netting that hat-trick, the ex-Super Eagle became the third player in the history of the competition to achieve the feat and indeed the first African (Yacine Brahimi matched the West African in 2014 in Porto’s 6-0 demolition of BATE Borisov) to score three goals in a UCL fixture.

The Barcelona frontman was named Man of the Match after his goal began the turnaround against a dogged Arsenal side in Paris to help the Catalan side secure a 2-1 win.

Barca had fallen behind to a Sol Campbell header in the first half and the game seemed set for a victory for the North London club until Eto’o levelled with 15 minutes to play. Juliano Belletti netted four minutes later to seal the result against a tired Gunners who had Jens Lehmann sent off after 20 minutes.

It was the Cameroon icon who drew the foul from the German shot-stopper in the opening half of the encounter, making Arsene Wenger’s side play on the back foot all game.

Eto’o’s strike was the first Arsenal had conceded since the group stage.

While many observers recall the Chelsea legend’s showing against Bayern Munich in 2012 fondly, his performance against Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool in ‘08 was certainly a stronger display.

Criticised for his gamesmanship by the Spanish boss in the build-up to the semi-final second-leg, Drogba put the Reds to the sword with two well-taken goals in the 3-2 success at Stamford Bridge, thus seeing the Blues progress 4-3 on aggregate.

That brace took Chelsea into the club’s first Champions League final in their history, and despite the flaunted Bayern display, that glorious night at the Bridge was the Ivorian’s superior showing.

While Drogba’s match-winning heroics gets most of the acclaim in their UCL-winning run, Mikel’s performance is undoubtedly slept on.

The Nigerian anchorman was extremely busy against the fancied Bavarian giants, winning a horde of tackles, making interceptions and breaking up play when necessary.

It was probably the much-maligned Mikel’s best display for Chelsea, and it came on the club’s greatest night.

The Senegal star netted a fine brace in Liverpool’s 3-1 success over Bayern to seal a 3-1 aggregate success over Niko Kovac’s side in the Round of 16.

Mane’s latched onto a Virgil van Dijk pass, killed the ball with a brilliant touch, turned Manuel Neuer just inside the box to send the Reds a goal up at the Allianz Arena.

With Die Bayern then threatening to mount a late comeback in the Champions League, the ex-Southampton forward headed home from Mohamed Salah’s exquisite ball to finish off the German side in front of their fans.

Jurgen Klopp’s team went on to win their sixth European crown, and Mane’s wonderful showing embodied Liverpool’s amazing night.