The Nigeria international made a name for himself with the Dragons before being substituted in Saturday’s difficult win
FC Porto coach Sergio Conceição declared Zaidu Sanusi’s goal in Saturday’s 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Vitoria Guimaraes “deserves praise,” Soccernet.ng reported.
Porto suffered a crushing 1-0 home defeat to Estoril last weekend, and found themselves on the back foot once again when Andre Silva put Guimarães ahead in the 17th minute at the Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques.
However, Sanussi appeared inside the penalty area and scored the equalizer in the 39th minute with a header from Francisco Conceição’s cross.
The Super Eagles left-back was replaced by Brazilian Garina in the 55th minute, four minutes before Conceição scored the Dragons’ winning goal.
There were concerns that Sanussi’s substitution was due to a blow, but Conceição denied any talk of an injury.
Porto’s manager admitted Sanusi had been the target of a tough tackle, but said he had replaced him after the Nigerian player did not perform well.
However, Conceição praised Sanusi’s goal and called on his team to aim more at the opponent’s dangerous areas.
“I felt he wasn’t at his best because he was struggling with heavy tackles and was getting into trouble,” he said of Sanusi in the post-match press conference.
“We must not forget the time he was away, the two games he played after the injury. Finding a competitive rhythm again is never easy.”
“He deserves credit for his goal. When I saw him struggling, I brought Taremi and Galeno into play and moved Pepe deeper.”
“It paid off because we could have scored more goals. We lacked positivity in different goal areas. We showed potential, but we could have been even more effective.
Sanusi was not included in Nigeria’s 23-man squad and will not be available for the Super Eagles’ consecutive World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in November.
