Victor Boniface has last laugh over Omar Marmoush in Bundesliga blockbuster

Two of the most in-form African players of the season found themselves going head to head, as Victor Boniface’s Bayer Leverkusen met Omar Marmoush and Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.

The Nigerian had the last laugh in this Bundesliga blockbuster, but his weekend took a near-tragic twist when he was involved in a vehicle accident after the match.

After a truly miserable international break for Ghana’s Black Stars in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Mohammed Kudus and Jordan Ayew returned to Premier League action — with decidedly mixed results.

Heading into this weekend’s showdown between Bayer and Eintracht, Boniface and Marmoush had established themselves among the Bundesliga’s outstanding players of the season.

While the latter, coming off the back of last season’s historic title-winning campaign, had scored four goals in his first six top flight outings so far, Marmoush had been in even more dazzling form, heading into the weekend with eight in six to sit atop the scoring charts.

Both had their say here and it initially looked like Marmoush would be the game’s decisive protagonist after an early setback for the Nigerian.

Inside the first 10 minutes, Bayer were awarded a penalty when recent Cameroon call-up Junior Dina Ebimbe clipped Amine Adli needlessly inside the box.

With Florian Wirtz, Leverkusen’s regular taker, on the bench, Boniface stepped up, only for his tame, low spotkick to be saved by Kevin Trapp.

Seven minutes later, it was Eintracht’s chance to open the scoring from 12 yards when Robert Andrich bundled Marmoush over, only moments after the latter had hit the woodwork with a powerful effort from range.

Here, the Egyptian, brimming with confidence and having already netted the winner from the penalty spot against Wolfsburg earlier this season, was unfazed, and promptly fired inside Lukas Hradecky’s post despite the keeper going in the right direction.

It was the sixth consecutive Bundesliga game in which the Egyptian has found the net, while the 25-year-old is already only three goals off equalling his top flight goal haul of last term.

However, while Marmoush hadn’t previously been on the losing side for Frankfurt since August 24, here, the reigning champions were to turn the contest on its head, with Boniface determined to make amends for his early miss.

It could have been a different story had Marmoush added to his tally — he took four shots in total — but Leverkusen steadily began to assert their dominance as the dynamic of the match changed, with Robert Andrich equalising midway through the first half.

Boniface headed home a winner 18 minutes from time when he rose above the visiting defence to send a deflected Wirtz cross into the net, ensuring that Xabi Alonso’s champions secured the three points that their dominance deserved.

“We were doing the right thing,” Boniface said after the match, speaking to the Bundesliga’s touchline reporter, “we just had to be patient with ourselves.

“We know how important this game [was] for us, and we need to win games like this,” he added. “We tried to be calm and luckily for us, we got the win.”

Boniface’s goal takes him up to five matches for the season — joint third in the league after Marmoush and Harry Kane — while the defending champions move up to fourth, three points behind Bayern Munich, after seven matches.

His star turn against Eintracht — Boniface had nine attempts on goal during the match, and set up teammates for three goalscoring chances — was even more impressive given his exploits with the Super Eagles during the international break, with the striker among the Nigeria players held in an airport in Libya amidst a (not so) sporting spat between the two countries.

The toll wasn’t clear on his performance against Frankfurt, at least before his 79th-minute withdrawal, with Boniface, undaunted by his early penalty miss, thrusting himself into the bout and winning more aerial battles than anyone else on the pitch.

The weekend subsequently took a near-devastating twist for Boniface when he was involved in a road accident, with the forward taking to social media to share footage of the car he was travelling in, the significant damage sustained, and the striker’s bloodied hands.

“God is the greatest,” he posted. “God decided my time didn’t come.”

It remains to be seen whether Boniface will be in a fit state to compete against Stade Brestois in Bayer’s next Champions League outing on Wednesday. Also in the Bundesliga, Serhou Guirassy retuned from a magnificent international break in fine fettle, and again extended his goalscoring run at club side.

The Guinea forward ensured Michel Dussuyer’s time as Syli National head coach got off to an excellent start by scoring five goals across two internationals during the break, including a hat-trick in the 4-1 thumping of Ethiopia.

After a sluggish, injury-hit start to the season, Guirassy has begun to find his rhythm at Borussia Dortmund; he’d scored six goals in his previous five matches ahead of the international window, and again proved the difference-maker at the weekend.

Nuri Sahin is still finding his feet at BVB coach, and if the ex-Turkey international does enjoy a long reign as Dortmund head coach, he may look back to weekends like this one — where Guirassy’s 83rd-minute winner turned one point into three — as critical turning points as he gets his tenure off the ground.

A consistent goalscorer like Guirassy should help go some way to papering over the clear limitations in this Dortmund side as Sahin gets his house in order.

Guirassy now leads the AFCON qualifying scoring charts, while only Kane sits ahead of him in the Champions League Golden Boot race so far; can the Guinean extend his scoring run when BVB travel to Real Madrid on Tuesday? Over in the Premier League, Ghanaian duo Mohammed Kudus and Jordan Ayew will surely be desperate to have returned to club action after a miserable international break which has left the Black Stars’ prospects of reaching the AFCON hanging by a thread.

Both Jordan and Kudus were in action as Ghana took just one point from home-and-away fixtures against Sudan, led by ex-Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah, and they now require the Falcons of Jediane to lose both of their qualifiers while the West Africans win both of their outstanding games to progress to Morocco.

Jordan, a late-transfer window arrival at Leicester City, enjoyed a heroic return to action as his late, late strike secured maximum points for the Foxes away at relegation rivals Southampton.

Nigeria’s Joe Aribo had added a second for the Saints inside the first half hour as Russell Martin’s side took control of the game, but Jordan capped off a magnificent Foxes comeback during a raucous late spell.

On as a second-half substitute, Ayew was picked out on the edge of the box by a low Harry Winks corner, in the seventh minute of stoppage time, and fired optimistically through a melee of Southampton defenders before celebrating raucously with the visiting supporters.

“It was my natural instinct. We Premier League players, we need to improvise sometimes, and that’s what I did,” Jordan said.

“It was a special moment because it was my first goal for the club in the league,” he continued. “It’s taken a bit of time but I believe in myself, my abilities, and I know I can bring a lot of things.”

This was Jordan’s first Leicester goal, coming in his eighth PL outing for his new employers, and he’s unlikely to strike any more important during the course of the campaign. For Kudus, there was to be no reprieve, as a troubled week got even worse despite netting a sublime opener for West Ham United against Tottenham Hotspur.

He broke the deadlock in this fine London derby with a powerful effort, thumping off his weaker foot, to give the Hammers a 19th-minute lead at the home of their fierce rivals.

However, Spurs’ class eventually told, and the Irons’ frustration grew as Tottenham went through the gears and eventually took a 4-1 lead with 30 minutes still on the clock. Things got much worse for Kudus during a late meltdown, as the 24-year-old was dismissed — following a VAR review — after appearing to kick Micky van de Ven when the defender was down.

Kudus then lashed out at Van der Ven, Richarlison (inadvertently) and Pape Sarr in an altercation as all composure deserted him.

Now, the Black Star — West Ham’s best player so far this season — is set to be sidelined for three games for violent conduct, but may yet see his ban extended given the nature, and scale, of his implosion.

Given West Ham only have three games to go until the next international break, don’t expect Ghana talisman Kudus to be match-sharp come the Black Stars’ do-or-die duels with Angola and Niger.