Sanusi the last man standing as UCL enters quarters

The Nigerian flag will still be flying high out there in Europe in the first week of April, when the whistle goes for the UEFA Champions League quarter finals.

Right after the international break, one man who has had a lot going his way, FC Porto defender Zaidu Sanusi will still be at the elite club competition in Europe with his team gunning for honors.

At the start of the Champions League this season, there were six Nigerian players listed by their clubs for the competition.

After a grueling first round and a tough knockout stage, five have fallen by the wayside and Sanusi is the last man standing.

It has been a dream season for the defender. He was signed at the start of the season from Santa Clara, where he was for just one season and impressed. In just his second season in the Portuguese top flight, he has established himself as a key player, the club having signed him for just 4 million Euros.

Three seasons ago, Sanusi was playing in the lower tiers but this season he already has a goal in the Champions League and has featured in eight matches in the competition.

His team rose from a tough Group C that had Manchester City, Marseille and Olympiacos then went on to pull a heroic show in Turin to dump Juventus out in the second round.

Heading to the quarter finals, Porto are referred as the dark horses but they will be happy with the tag and as they keep delivering Sanusi will keep pushing on with his amazing season.

Porto are drawn to face off with Chelsea in the quarters. This is among the matches sampled on Wincomparator, and in the Champions League betting tips, just as it has been for most of their matches this season, Porto are tipped as the underdogs.

No team has bigger odds for a win in the first leg, than Porto’s, with 1xBet placing 4.32 on the Portuguese side despite starting the tie at home. Unibet has the best odds for a draw at 3.6 while a Chelsea win on 1xBet has odds of 1.99.

Porto’s season in the Champions League is reminiscent of their campaign in 2004 when against all odds they went on to lift the title. They’ve stopped Italian giants Juventus and they’ll definitely have the belief they can do it against Chelsea.

The belief is what embodies Nigerian international Sanusi’s season – that it is all possible. Indeed it is considering all the other Nigerians, more experienced and playing for bigger clubs have already dropped out of this competition.

At the start of the season, there was Odion Ighalo, at Manchester United. His team got dumped out at the group stages without the player getting very little play time, in the 3-1 loss to PSG at home.

Dennis Bonaventure and David Okereke at Club Brugge in Belgium, were the other Nigerians registered for this season’s Champions League while Midtjylland of Denmark had Frank Onyeka. At Istanbul Basaksehir, injury denied Azubuike Okechukwu a chance to play in the top competition.