Soccer
Super Eagles and Nottingham Forest defender, Ola Aina, has drawn praise from several top names in world football following his goal-line clearance against Southampton, Soccernet.ng reports.
The 28-year-old has been one of the brightest stars for the Reds this season, and has played every league game, scoring two goals and providing one assist.
Aina provided an assist in Forest’s 3-2 win over Southampton yesterday, putting in a brilliant cross for the in-form Chris Wood to head home, but that was not his only vital involvement in the game.
In last evening’s keenly contested clash at the City Ground, Ola Aina cleared Jan Bednarek’s powerful goal-bound header to keep his side top of the game. The clearance sealed Forest’s win and was the eighth game of Nuno Espirito’s side without a loss.
Ola Aina off the line!
Jan Bednarek’s header was destined for goal, but the @NFFC defender made a vital intervention!#NFOSOU pic.twitter.com/miI9aY4lhG
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 19, 2025
The action of the former Chelsea man drew praise from the opposition’s coach. Southampton’s Ivan Juric lauded the Nigerian full-back. The pair worked together during Aina’s time at Torino.
“He’s like a son to me because we had a really good relationship at Torino. We worked hard there and he’s a great guy.
“Today he saved a certain goal and he played a really good game. He is an incredible player, ideal for the Premier League because he is fast with lots of energy,” the Croatian gaffer said in quotes revealed by Nottingham Post.
Nottingham Forest head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, credited Aina for focusing on his duty of covering the back post.
“He did one in the previous game. It is one of his tasks – if you cover the back post, when the ball comes in you have to try to give a hand to the goalkeeper. I hope set-pieces don’t become a problem for us. We have to work on that,” the former Tottenham Hotspur manager said as revealed by Nottingham Post.
The versatile full-back has been consistent with the act of putting himself on the line to keep Forest in the game, as he did against Liverpool.
WHAT A BLOCK FROM OLA AINA
pic.twitter.com/pH9xUQ74xa— S???? (@scrapytweets) January 14, 2025
Nonetheless, the particular action yesterday afternoon shadowed Forest’s not-so-good second-half performance according to former Southampton midfielder, Jo Tessem.
“We totally got Forest out of their rhythm and when the messiness stopped we suddenly looked like the football team and were creating chances. We got the two goals and suddenly we were in the game and a toe from [Ola] Aina saved Forest from an embarrassing second half. It would have been a massive comeback but still, we didn’t get over the line,” the Norwegian said in quotes revealed by BBC Sports.
Ola Aina’s deal at the City Ground runs out in the summer, but the club are confident of keeping him at the club beyond this summer.
Adefolahan Guerreiro
Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria.
With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience.
He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.
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