Versatile Awaziem Back In Favour At Nantes, Very Impressive At LB Against Marseille

Versatile Super Eagles defender Chidozie Awaziem is back in favour at French Ligue 1 outfit Nantes two weeks before the national team start training for a pre-World Cup friendly against Poland in Wrocław.

The Porto loanee went the distance at left-back as Nantes were forced to a 1-1 draw by Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome on Sunday night.

Awaziem's performance against one of the glamour teams in France was so impressive that he was one of the four Nantes players nominated for the the club's official Man of the Match accolade.

As at the time of this report, the former Golden Eaglets invitee was third in the poll with 14 percent of the votes, behind Léo Dubois (48 percent) and Nicolas Pallois (30 percent).

However, the pundits at Whoscored have disagreed with that poll and rated the Nigerian Nantes most outstanding player with a 7.79 score ahead of Lucas Lima (7.37) and Léo Dubois (7.26).

Awaziem held his own against one of the leading scorers in the French top-flight Florian Thauvin, and the France international was unable to increase his tally to 16 goals until the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time.

The 21-year-old made a game-high seven tackles, three interceptions and nine clearances, the top player on the pitch in the three categories combined.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel