Bundesliga 2: Okoroji scores directly from corner-kick
Nigeria’s left-back Chima Okoroji scored directly from a corner-kick in the German Bundesliga 2 as Sandhausen secured a 3-1 victory over Hannover 96 on Saturday.
The 24-year-old stepped up to take the set-piece in the seventh minute and he curled in his left-footed effort to put the hosts in front.
In the 19th minute, Marcel Franke scored an own goal to double Sandhausen’s lead but the visitors halved the deficit through Sebastian Stolze’s goal, two minutes later.
Towards the end of the encounter, Janik Bachmann sealed maximum points for Alois Schwartz’s men with his 81st-minute goal at the BWT-Stadion am Hardtwald.
Saturday’s stunner was Okoroji’s first goal in the German second division this season after playing 24 matches.
It was also his maiden goal for Sandhausen following his permanent transfer from Bundesliga club Freiburg in June 2021.
Born to a Nigerian father and an English mother in Germany, the 24-year-old started his football development at Bayern Munich where he spent 10 years before moving on to Augsburg in 2015.
He made his professional debut in the Bundesliga in October 2018 where he spent three years with loan stints at Jahn Regensburg and Paderborn.
The emphatic win ended a run of three straight draws for Sandhausen and they occupy the 13th spot in the Bundesliga 2 with 29 points after 25 matches – two points behind Hannover 96.
Okoroji is eligible to play for either Germany, Nigeria or England on the international scene.
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