Daily Independent (Lagos)
9 May 2011
Enyimba’s coach Okey Emordi has likened his team’s slim 1-0 win over Libyan champions, Al-Ittihad in Sunday’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League clash to lack of match rustiness.
Enyimba pipped hard-fighting Al-Ittihad of Libya 1-0 courtesy of a victor Barnabas penalty goal after 70 minutes to qualify for the money-spinning stage of the Champions League.
The two-time African champions thus joined defending champions TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Mouloudia Alger (Algeria)and Raja Casablanca (Morocco) in the mini-league phase of the continent’s foremost club competition.
CAF had early taken a decision to make Enyimba/Al-Ittihad encounter a one leg game due to the civil unrest in the North African state.
Emordi who praised the Libyans for stretching the two-time African champions to the limit told SuperSport.com that they were happy to have overcome their opponents admitting that his wards did not play to the best of their ability.
“We were match rusty because the premier league has been on break for some time now and it did not help our preparations. We only had a few friendly matches which were not enough but we thank God we won despite the shortcomings. It was a tough match and the match could have gone either way.”
Emordi promised better performances in the group stages saying they have set their sight on becoming African champion once again.
“There are lots of mitigating factors hindering the team’s performances like injuries and preparations but our aspiration remains to re-create the feats of 2003 and 2004. We are working exceedingly hard to ensure that we capture the title again.”
Also Sunshine Stars at the weekend shot to the next round of the Confederation Cup in Burkina Faso, despite losing 1-0 to army team USFA. It reaches the fourth round of the Confederation on a 2-1 aggregate having won the first leg 2-0 in Ijebu-Ode.
Nigeria’s other flag bearers in the anual competition, Kaduna United, walked over Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia to also advance to final qualifying round.
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