Amadou Onana could be about to get lucky again but Everton must be wary after Belgium error
For the second time in a week, Amadou Onana is seemingly a lucky boy with a potentially positive outcome from a negative situation and Belgium’s loss can be Everton’s gain.
Friday the 13th really did prove to be unlucky for the Blues midfielder on international duty with Belgium in Vienna as he was sent off in their match against Austria.
Onana, who had been booked in the 36th minute by Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano for a cynical foul to thwart Christoph Baumgartner on the counter, then received a second yellow card following a challenge on Xaver Schlager. While it looked like a somewhat innocuous collision and the Everton player himself gave the kind of stunned expression of shock that many footballers produce in such situations, the match official made his mind up straight away.
Such lapses in discipline are part of a steep learning curve for the 22-year-old who had only played 32 top flight matches (in France for Lille) before his £33.5million transfer to Goodison Park in August 2022. Onana will now serve a one-match suspension for Belgium’s next game at home to Sweden on Monday but thankfully for both player and country, despite being reduced to 10 men for the final 12 minutes, they held on for a 3-2 win in Austria which secured their qualification for next summer’s European Championships in Germany where he previously turned out for Hamburg.
READ NEXT: StillRyan joins Everton fans at 'heart-warming' Goodison Park event
ROYAL BLUE COLUMN: Everton have power club can use to its advantage and BBC just proved it
Despite only being capped nine times for Belgium to date, Onana is such a precocious talent that he has already captained his national side, finishing the 3-2 friendly win over Germany in Cologne in March
Read on liverpoolecho.co.uk
