Seven Loan Stars Feature Over The Weekend
- Adrien Silva completed 90 minutes as AS Monaco beat Nantes
- Daniel Iversen registered an assist while in goal for Oldham Athletic
- Josh Knight made his Peterborough United debut but was forced off early on due to injury
- Four other Leicester City players featured on loan over the weekend
Having made his debut in AS Monaco’s 2-1 victory over Toulouse at the beginning of February and featured in the 1-1 draw at Montpellier the following weekend, midfielder Silva played 90 minutes in Sunday’s 1-0 triumph over Nantes.
Leonardo Jardim’s outfit secured all three Ligue 1 points thanks to Gelson Martin’s early strike and in turn moved out of the bottom three and up into 16th position. Portugal international Silva is yet to taste defeat while at Monaco, who next host third-placed Lyon.
In Turkey, Algeria striker Slimani, who scored the winner in Thursday’s UEFA Europa League Round of 32 first leg victory over Zenit Saint Petersburg, played from start to finish as Fenerbahçe drew 1-1 with Konyaspor in the Süper Lig on Saturday.
After Konyaspor were reduced to 10 men when Adis Jahović was dismissed, Moryké Fofana opened the scoring for the visitors at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, before Jailson found the net in first half stoppage time to secure a point for Slimani’s outfit.
In the same division, forward Diabaté completed 86 minutes in Sivasspor’s 4-2 loss to Erzurumspor at the Kazım Karabekir Stadium.
Despite being level on two occasions as Serhiy Rybalka and Hakan Arslan replied to strikes from Jasmin Šćuk and Samuel Emem Eduok, Eduok scored again before former Manchester United attacker Gabriel Obertan made sure of the result.
Meanwhile, over in Belgium, Kapustka was introduced with 16 minutes to play as Oud-Heverlee Leuven defeated Westerlo 3-0 at King Power at Den Dreef Stadion on Saturday.
Efforts from Thomas Henry, Olivier Myny and Mathieu Maertens sealed all three Proximus League points. Centre-back Elliott Moore did not feature in the convincing triumph.
December’s Premier League 2 Player of the Month, Knight, made his debut for Peterborough United, but only played 22 minutes after picking up an injury.
Peterborough went on to win 1-0 against Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium thanks to Ivan Toney’s 75th-minute strike, and now sit just a point off the League 1 Play-Off positions.
Another Fox in Football League action was Denmark youth international goalkeeper Iversen, who grabbed an unlikely assist as Oldham Athletic were held to a 1-1 draw with Crewe Alexandra.
Now under the stewardship of Premier League legend Paul Scholes, Oldham went ahead on 23 minutes as Callum Lang converted Iversen’s long ball, but conceded in the third minute of injury time as George Ray earned a point for the visitors.
Finally, despite an impressive run in League 1, Scunthorpe United lost 1-0 to Gillingham on Saturday, with Wales international Thomas playing 73 minutes in the reverse at Priestfield Stadium. Mark Byrne scored the only goal of the game.
Defenders Filip Benković (Celtic) and Callum Elder (Ipswich Town) did not play this weekend, while midfielder Andy King was cup-tied for Derby County’s Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion and Darnell Johnson served the first game of a two-match suspension at Hibernian.