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QUADRI, ABIODUN INSPIRE SPORTING TO QUARTERFINAL OF ETTU CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

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For the first time in Portugal, two Nigerians – Aruna Quadri and Bode Abiodun will be making history as the first Africans to aid the qualification of Portuguese table tennis champion – Sporting to the quarterfinal stage of the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) Champions League.

The Lisbon-based team made their debut in the lucrative league this season and they proved bookmakers wrong with the eventual qualification to the quarterfinal round of the competition ahead of two-time champion – France’s Pontoise Cergy.

From for matches played in Group A which include two former champions; Sporting led by Aruna Quadri won three and lost one to join star-studded Russia’s Orenburg who are yet to lose a match in the group.

The group fourth round encounter in Lisbon between Sporting and Pontoise Cergy has all the element of world class match with Quadri producing a repeat of his performance at the Swedish Open against home-boy – Marcos Freitas who led the French team.

Having lost 3-1 to Freitas during the first leg in France, Quadri ensured that Freitas kissed the canvass in the encounter for Sporting to record a 3-0 win.

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Sporting’s Joao Monteiro improved his individual score to 5-1, as he beat Pontoise’s Can Akkuzu 3-2 in the opening game in Lisbon.

But Monteiro was extended to full distance by promising French player. Unique African player in the league, Quadri overcame one of the best European players Freitas 3:1, while Diogo Carvalho reversed the score from 1:2 to 3:2 against Niago Stoyanov.

With seven points from four matches; Sporting’s two remaining matches will be away to Polish side while their last match will be at home to the Russian side.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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