Raphael Onyedika featured for the full 90 minutes but couldn’t prevent Club Brugge from suffering a heavy 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa in their UEFA Champions League round of 16 second-leg clash on Wednesday.
The result sealed a 6-1 aggregate exit for the Belgian side.
Club Brugge’s hopes took an early hit when Kyriani Sabbe received a straight red card in the 17th minute, leaving them a man down for most of the game.
Despite their initial resilience, they eventually succumbed to Villa’s relentless pressure in the second half.
Marco Asensio broke the deadlock in the 50th minute, and just seven minutes later, Ian Maatsen doubled Villa’s lead.
Asensio struck again in the 61st minute, putting the game beyond reach for Club Brugge.
Onyedika had one of Brugge’s rare goal-scoring opportunities, but his shot was blocked by Villa defender Ezri Konsa, frustrating the visitors’ hopes of a comeback.
The defeat makes Onyedika the latest Nigerian player to bow out of the Champions League this season.
He follows the exits of Ademola Lookman (Atalanta), Victor Boniface and Nathan Tella (Bayer Leverkusen), and Samuel Chukwueze (AC Milan), who all saw their teams eliminated in previous rounds.
Lookman had provided a brief spark for Atalanta in their playoff loss to Brugge, scoring just 35 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
However, he also missed a crucial penalty as the Italian side fell 3-1 (5-2 on aggregate).
Chukwueze’s AC Milan crashed out against Feyenoord, drawing 1-1 at San Siro but losing 2-1 on aggregate.
Meanwhile, Boniface and Tella’s Bayer Leverkusen suffered a resounding 5-0 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich, concluding their European campaign with a 2-0 defeat at home.
With Onyedika and other Nigerian stars now out of the tournament, the Champions League quarter-finals will continue without any Nigerian representation this season.
For Onyedika, the focus now shifts back to domestic duties with Club Brugge as they look to bounce back from their European disappointment.
