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By Abiodun Adewale.
There will be more than three points to play for between Group A leaders Bendel Insurance and eight-time champions Enyimba when both clubs meet in one of the last matches of the first stanza of the 2022/23 Nigerian Professional Football League in Benin on Sunday (today), PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The match-day nine encounter isn’t just a clash between number one and number two in the group, another thing that makes this fixture interesting is the battle of goal scorers between league top scorer Emeka Obioma of Enyimba as well as the duo of Osarenkhoe Imade and Ismael Sarki of Bendel Insurance.
Imade and Sarki have been in the spotlight from match-day one as the striking partners have scored in the same game on four occasions to help Bendel Insurance secure points Akwa United, Plateau United, Remo Stars and Shooting Stars. Bendel Insurance have won on three of the occasions in which both players scored, while they also drew one.
In the process, both players have nine goals between them, five of them for Imade while Sarki has four. Bendel Insurance has scored twelve goals this season, so, both players have contributed seventy percent of the goals for the Benin Arsenal so far this season.
Their opponents, Enyimba have scored as much this season, and have conceded five goals as well, and so the hosts will be banking on the combination of Imade and Sarki to extend their unbeaten run to nine games and through the first half of the season.
While the Benin Arsenal remain the only unbeaten side so far in the league, Enyimba have also proven to be a potent goal scoring side with 12 goals as well. Their striker, Emeka Obioma has been leading that charge as his seven goals set him above other contenders for the golden boot at the moment.
Unlike his counterparts at Insurance, Obioma began to score on match-day four, bagging a brace against Kwara United and has followed it up with two other braces against El-Kanemi Warriors and Shooting Stars as well as one other goal against Gombe United to take his tally to seven.
Having matched the hosts in terms of goals scored, if Enyimba would be able to end Insurance’s unbeaten run on Sunday, they will need Obioma to be on song again as Finidi George has rightly charged him following his streak in the last five matches.
“Anything he touches goes in and we are all happy for him. Great form he’s got, and his attitude is perfect and brilliant. We keep encouraging and pushing him to get the best out of him,” FInidi said.
With four points separating them on the table, a triumph for Enyimba will not change their positions on the table, but reducing the gap will be huge for the visitors just as the hosts will be looking to extend their lead going into the mid-season break.