Shehu Abdullahi and Iyayi Atiemwen will be playing the UEFA Conference League this season following Omonia Nicosia’s 3-2 penalty defeat at the hands of Belgian side Royal Antwerp on Thursday night.
Abdullahi played for 110 minutes while Atiemwen was a second half substitute in regular time, but the Nigerians couldn’t help their team avoid a capitulation in the second leg of the Europa League playoff match against their hosts.
After a comfortable 4-2 victory in the first-leg, Omonia only needed to defend well at the Bosuilstadion to ease their way into the second tier inter-club competition in Europe.
However the script played out differently, Antwerp scored three goals in regular time to force the game into extra-time and eventually into shoot-outs.
Atiemwen converted his kick, but Omonia lost three of their five kicks. The hosts only needed to convert three of the four, a task they executed nicely and picked the ticket to the group stage of the Europa League.
