Industrious Nigeria international Oghenekaro Etebo worked his socks off as Las Palmas were held to a 1-1 draw by La Liga pacesetters Barcelona at Estadio de Gran Canaria on Thursday night.

Messi scored from a free-kick to open the scoring for the visitors on 21 minutes, but Jonathan Calleri calmly converted a penalty kick to equalize for La Union Deportiva two minutes into the second half.

Etebo and his teammates completely stifled the offense of Barcelona with a strong defensive performance for the remainder of the game.

According to statistics from Whoscored.com, the Super Eagles star was the most fouled Las Palmas player on the pitch, winning four fouls, double the figure of Vicente Gómez and Jonathan Calleri, who drew two fouls each.

Etebo was the most accurate with the ball at his feet of all the 14 players in action for Las Palmas, finishing the game with a passing accuracy of 92 percent to place first ahead of Vicente Gómez with 86.8 percent.

Against Malaga on his debut, he had a passing accuracy of 84.9 percent, Leganes 77.8 percent,  Sevilla 74.5 percent and Athletic Bilbao 87.2 percent, meaning he set a new personal record against Barcelona since his arrival in Spain in the winter transfer market.

This season, the former Warri Wolves star has been deployed at central midfield, attacking midfield, center forward, left winger and support striker.

Oghenekaro Etebo's form will please Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr, who has named the versatile midfielder on the roster for the friendlies against Poland and Serbia later this month.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel