Senegalese Papiss Cisse made a fairy-tale return to the English Premier League at the weekend by bagging the brace that salvaged a 2-2 draw for Newcastle against Hull.
Cisse, sidelined since April with a broken kneecap, came off the bench midway through the second half with the Magpies trailing by two goals at home.
Fellow Senegalese Mohamed Diame, Kenyan Victor Wanyama and Congolese Yannick Bolasie were other Africans on target in the Premier League.
ENGLAND
PAPISS CISSE (Newcastle)
The Senegal forward, who hadn't played since April after breaking his kneecap, gave the textbook example of a 'super sub' by scoring twice after coming on in the 68th minute to rescue a point for Newcastle in a 2-2 draw at home to Hull. He drilled a low shot home following Cheick Tiote's pass and, with three minutes left, pounced on Yoan Gouffran's knock-down.
MOHAMED DIAME (Hull)
The midfielder scored what looked like being the winning goal at St James' Park --before Senegal colleague Cisse intervened -- with a superb 68th-minute shot from 25 yards that went in off the post.
WILFRIED BONY (Swansea)
The Ivorian forward has done many fine things with the Welsh side but his sending-off ultimately proved key to Swansea's 1-0 loss at home to Southampton. If his first booking for running into Jose Fonte was harsh, he could have no complaints about the second that saw him dismissed in the 39th minute for a reckless challenge from behind on Maya Yoshida.
VICTOR WANYAMA (Southampton)
Despite Swansea playing more than half the match a man down, it seemed they might hold out for a draw in front of the Liberty Stadium faithful until, 10 minutes from time, Kenya midfielder Wanyama, on as a substitute, scored his first goal for Southampton when he shot across goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
YANNICK BOLASIE (Crystal Palace)
After West Brom won on Sunday, Palace found themselves bottom of the Premier League. But they moved out of the basement thanks to a 3-2 win at Everton where France-born Democratic Republic of Congo winger Bolasie played a starring role that he capped with the Eagles' third goal in the 69th minute.
YAYA TOURE (Manchester City)
The Ivory Coast midfielder, criticised recently in some quarters for a lack of work rate, had his moments in the champions' 1-1 draw at home to Premier League leaders Chelsea. He got on the end of an early corner but headed straight at goalkeeper Thibault Courtois. After Pablo Zabaleta was sent off he, perhaps inevitably, dropped deeper having already produced some expert cross-field balls and a fine chip forward for Sergio Aguero.
SPAIN
STEPHANE MBIA (Sevilla)
The Cameroon midfielder and captain scored his second goal in four days for Sevilla as they won 3-1 at Cordoba. Mbia added to his midweek strike against Feyenoord in the Europa League as he powered home Denis Suarez's cross to make it three wins from four games for Unai Emery's men.
SIMAO MATE JUNIOR/PAPE DIOP (Levante)
Mozambican Simao and Senegalese Diop were overrun in midfield as Levante remain rooted to the foot of the table and without a goal after four games as they were thrashed 5-0 at home by Barcelona.
ITALY
GERVINHO (Roma)
Roma have been on a wave since the start of the season and a large part of that is down to Gervinho. The Ivorian did not hit the net in the 2-0 win over Cagliari but after Mattia Destro's 10th-minute opener he was instrumental in Alessandro Florenzi's goal. Gervinho beat the offside trap to collect Malian Seydou Keita's long ball from midfield, before laying off for Florenzi to send an angled strike past Alessio Cragno.
OMAR EL KADDOURI (Torino)
Torino called on El Kaddouri to step up and help salvage a share of the points late in their home game against Verona following Rafael Marquez's foul on Bruno Peres two minutes from time. But the Belgium-born Morocco midfielder appeared fazed by the goalline antics of visiting 'keeper Rafael, who blocked the spot-kick and also the rebound to secure a precious win for Verona.
SULLEY MUNTARI (Milan)
Muntari had the job of policing Juventus's midfield players but, like many of Milan's players at the San Siro, seemed overwhelmed on more than one occasion. The Ghanaian saw a good shooting chance go amiss just before the half hour, gave away possession more than once and then argued with Claudio Marchisio after running 20 metres to tackle the Italian midfielder, who ended up with a yellow card. Muntari was cautioned in the 84th minute, but by then the damage had been done by Carlos Tevez's 71st-minute strike, which gave Juve a deserved 1-0 win.
KWADWO ASAMOAH (Juventus)
Having been used in various positions by new Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri, Asamoah returned to his position wide on the left of Juve's midfield, and was back to his usual self. Asamoah's pace caused problems for the Milan defence and although not Juve's top player on the night, the Ghanaian's ball distribution and ability to recover possession was as crucial as ever for the Bianconeri. Juve won 1-0 and are now second behind Roma on goal difference.
FRANCE
PAPY DJILOBODJI/SERGE GAKPE (Nantes)
Senegalese midfielder Djilobodji picked up a cross from Togolese Gakpe to head in after nine minutes to put Nantes on their way to a 2-1 win at home against Nice. The victory lifted the southern Brittany outfit to seventh position after six games.
BENJAMIN MOUKANDJO (Reims)
Cameroon striker Moukandjo scored the only goal of a tie which moved Reims out of relegation zone with a win at Lorient. The victory ended a series of eight consecutive away defeats going back to February for the club from the Champagne region. Moukandjo, 25, picked up a cross and scored with a volley after 72 minutes.
WAHBI KHAZRI (Bordeaux)
A second-half goal from Tunisia midfielder Khazri got Willy Sagnol's Bordeaux back to winning ways with a 2-1 win which left hosts Evian rooted to the foot of the table.Khazri's sublime 56th-minute effort gave Bordeaux their second goal of the night and secured the three points which sees them flying high second in the table.
GERMANY
ERIC MAXIM CHOUPO-MOTING (Schalke)
The Cameroonian scored one goal and set up another in helping nine-man Schalke fight to a 2-2 draw at home against 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt. It was the second straight game in which Choupo-Moting scored.
CONSTANT DJAKPA (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Ivory Coast defender Djakpa will miss about six months after suffering a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee in Eintracht Frankfurt's 2-2 draw at Schalke. He was stretchered off after awkwardly landing in a challenge for the ball.
ABDUL RAHMAN BABA (Augsburg)
The 20-year-old Ghana defender helped stabilise the Augsburg defence, which gave up a goal in the third minute but held the high-power Werder Bremen attack to just one score the rest of the way in a 4-2 win at home.
Source: AFP
