Harambee Starlets striker nets nine-minute Champions League brace as Slavia Prague coast to victory

STARS ABROAD Harambee Starlets striker nets nine-minute Champions League brace as Slavia Prague coast to victory

Mark Kinyanjui 08:06 - 12.10.2023

The goalscoring Harambee Starlets machine’s brace inspired Slavia Prague Women to Champions League victory over a frankly hapless Olimpia Cluj.

Marjolen Nekesa Wafula netted an opening nine-minute brace as Czech side Slavia Prague Women coasted to a 5-0 victory over Olimpia Cluj in a UEFA Women’s Champions League match played on Wednesday evening.

Nekesa looked electric all evening, as her goals laid a platform for her side to soar to victory in a somewhat nonchalant manner.

She found the back of the net after just four minutes when she got on the end of a Michele Xiao cross to nod in the game's opener. 

Nekesa would make it two when Franny Černá carried the ball forwards from deep in her own half before getting into the box and then cut it back to Nekesa, who slotted the ball home with a well-taken left footed strike.

Olympia just could not get going, and were 3-0 down just before the break. A ball whipped in from the right flank hit the crossbar before it fell onto the path of Michaela Khýrová, who scored the third goal from close range.

The hosts scored their fourth goal of the evening in the 81st minute through substitute Péta Divišova with an unstoppable volley, before fellow substitute Karolína Křivská put the game to bed with a fifth goal which she rifled into the top corner of the net.

The result now means that Slavia look well set to qualify for the group stages of the competition should they keep their lead intact in the second leg.

Nekesa grew up in Kitale, Kenya. She was introduced to playing football by her father at a young age.

The 24-year-old schooled at Butere Girls High School before moving to the United States to attend Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where she majored in Sports Management and scored 25 goals as a freshman.

 In 2022, Nekesa signed for Belarusian side Minsk, where she debuted and scored her first goal for the club during the Belarusian Women's Super Cup final.

Later that year, she signed for Czech side Slavia, where she played in the UEFA Women's Champions League and became the first Kenyan women's player to play in the Czech Republic. She was the top scorer of the 2022–23 Czech Women's First League with fourteen goals.