Awoniyi sinks former club Mainz with brace

Taiwo Awoniyi scored a second-half brace as Union Berlin silenced his former club Mainz FC in a German elite division encounter on Sunday. It was the hosts who took the lead in the 32nd minute through Marcus Ingvartsen, who squeezed a left-footed shot past Andreas Luther after he was set up by Austria international of […]

Taiwo Awoniyi scored a second-half brace as Union Berlin silenced his former club Mainz FC in a German elite division encounter on Sunday.

It was the hosts who took the lead in the 32nd minute through Marcus Ingvartsen, who squeezed a left-footed shot past Andreas Luther after he was set up by Austria international of Nigerian background Karim Onisiwo.

Union Berlin recorded a series of misses but nine minutes after the hour mark, the 05ers’ wall of resistance was finally broken when Awoniyi combined well to slot Kruse’s fine pass past goalkeeper Robin Zentner, after shrugging off a challenge from David Nemeth.

That goal was his fifth in the 2021-22 German top-flight season as well as Union Berlin’s 100th goal in the top-flight.

Four minutes later, he put his team ahead for the first time as Zentner could not get a hand to his stinging shot.

Eight minutes from full-time, man-of-the-match Awoniyi was substituted for German striker Andreas Voglsammer, with his compatriots Anthony Ujah and Suleiman Abdullahi not listed for action.