Super Eagles winger, Samuel Chukwueze was in action as Villarreal lost 1-0 to Barcelona in Sunday’s La Liga game, Abbeylivenetwork.com reports.
The Nigerian international has made 19 appearance, netted one goal and bagged two assists this ongoing season.
Chukwueze came on for Francis Coquelin in the 36th minute after he copped an injury.
Catlan giants took the lead in the 18th minute when Pedri finished off a brilliant team move. Frenkie De Jong found Raphinha high up the pitch and the Brazilian fed into Lewandowski with a near pass. The Pole played a quick one-two with Pedri to open up the hosts’ defense and the latter finished in style past Reina.
Minutes later, Lewandowski was denied once again by the Spanish goalkeeper minutes later as Reina got down quickly to keep the score at 1-0.
Villarreal should have leveled the score in the dying stages of the first half but Jose Luis Morales failed to hit the back of the net after being through on goal from Jules Kounde’s defensive calamity.
Both sides picked several yellow cards after the restart as neither gained any sort of passing rhythm and momentum to carve out openings.
Barcelona, however, should have been 2-0 ahead right after the hour mark but Raphinha put his effort wide following a delightful ball from Lewandowski.
Samuel Chukwueze had the ball in the back of the net, but the goal was chalked off as Yeremy Pino had drifted into an offside position. Barcelona survived a late spell of pressure from the hosts but eventually held on to grab three huge points on the evening.
The Camp Nou side have now won six straight league games and with far less European distraction to worry about should fancy themselves to lift the La Liga title at the end of the season.
Villarreal, meanwhile, sit eighth in the standings with 31 points from 21 games, 7 adrift of a UEFA Champions League berth.
