It took Nigerian striker, Victor Boniface only 14 minutes to make a huge impact as Bayer Leverkusen continued their season run in hot and scintillating fashion as they recorded a 2-0 win over English side, West Ham United in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League quarter-final, Thursday evening.
The Xabi Alonso side had toiled all day against a stubborn and defensive West Ham United in front of a ferocious 30,000 plus fans at the BayArena but couldn’t get the cutting edge for 28 minutes.
Xabi Alonso threw Jenas Hoffman and Victor Boniface into the game 14 minutes from time and the two didn’t disappoint as they got the needed goals for the team to record an important win over David Moyes’s side. We’ll compose Jonas Hofmann opened the scoring for the Die Schwarzroten — Victor Boniface got to a crossed ball from a corner and tried his luck with a shot, but Kurt Zouma stepped in to block the effort, the ball fell to Jonas Hofmann who showed good composure inside the box to fire a first-time shot into the bottom left corner.
Eight minutes later, Hoffmann turned rye provider for the second and the beneficiary was the first’s orchestrator — Victor Boniface. Jonas Hofmann sent a superb cross into the box which met Victor Boniface and the Nigerian without delay latched on to it and from close range planted a header into the bottom right corner, leaving Lukasz Fabianski beaten to send the fans into wild jubilation. Victor sauced the jubilation with Ghanaian Mohammed Kudus’s celebration right in front of him.
Victor Boniface who returned to action eighth days ago with 50 minutes spread in the legend two games will definitely count on this goal as a good comeback after staying out for 15 games for the side due to injury he sustained few days before the 2024 African Cup of Nations.
Photos: Bayer 04 Leverkusen