Onana goes from villain to hero after Salah joins illustrious list

‘One of the most extraordinary goals’ – Onana beaten by direct corner

It was all going swimmingly for the Turkish side, with Mohamed Salah assisting Paul Onuachu after just three minutes and then scoring himself shortly before half-time. Francelino Dju then made it 3-0 two minutes into the second half and it appeared it was going to be a routine night for Trabzonspor.

That was until seven minutes later when Petteri Pennanen lined up a corner for KuPS. The 36-year-old whipped the ball into a dangerous area and Onana came off his line to attempt to deal with it.

Unfortunately for the former Manchester United goalkeeper, that proved to be a rather embarrassing mistake.

He ended up flapping at Pennanen’s corner and completely missing the ball, as it sailed over his head and into the back of the net directly from the set piece.

It was a goal that got KuPS back into a game that appeared to be very much heading away from them when trailing by three.

The TNT Sports commentator said: ”The man who came to this club at its academy level has just scored one of the most extraordinary goals.

”Onana just read it wrong, and so focused that there wasn’t a KuPS player touch tight, he was then stranded as it swept under the bar.

”A brilliantly hit delivery but Onana will know.”

Andre Onana had a villain to hero sort of night for Trabzonspor.

And they kept attacking the Turkish side, who had now taken Salah off with the match seemingly wrapped up.

Soon after Samet Akaydin was deemed to have committed a handball and KuPS were awarded a penalty.

Up stepped Piotr Parzyszek, looking to get reduce the Finnish side's margin to one with more than half an hour left.

But, as ever with penalties, players can go from hero to zero very quickly and that proved to be exactly the case for Parzyszek and the opposite for Onana.

‘Redemption’ – Onana makes ‘excellent’ penalty save after corner blunder

The goalkeeper dived to his right and palmed the ball away, albeit right back into the path of Parzyszek, who then blasted the rebound over the bar.

It proved to be a decisive moment in the game and a remarkable turnaround for Onana.

Dju scored his second of the night in stoppage time to put the game to bed and, although Onana did concede again when Gustav Engvall slotted a consolation goal into the bottom left corner, it was a successful night for the Turkish side.

”Saved by Onana and the rebound over and there is redemption for Andre Onana," the TNT commentator said.

”Can afford himself the briefest of smiles, because that is an excellent stop and Parzyszek couldn’t keep the rebound down.

”He had two goes at it, will feel he has to do better with that too but Andre Onana shows some character to respond after his error for KuPS’ goal.”

Eyebrows may have been raised when Salah joined the Turkish club after leaving Liverpool in the summer.

The season before, the Egyptian had been the subject of interest from Saudi Arabian clubs who were willing to offer him quite substantial wages.

But Salah opted to join Trabzonspor, who had finished third in the Super Lig the season before.

They ended up qualifying for the Conference League, having missed out on Europa League qualification when losing 5-0 to Ferencvaros.

That saw Salah, who scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of Turkish champions Galatasaray before the international break, enter the Conference League for the first time.

And, in both scoring and assisting on his competition debut, he joined an exclusive list.

He became only the third player to have scored and assisted in all three UEFA competitions – the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

Only former Liverpool team-mate Cody Gakpo and German World Cup winner Mario Gotze had previously achieved that feat.

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