Enyimba International of Aba are heading for a repeat of history in this year’s last play-off round of the CAF Confederation Cup, as they could tango Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) rivals, Rivers United of Port Harcourt, megasportsarena.com reports.
This sequel to the play-off draw conducted in Cairo, Egypt, from which Rivers United would go head-to-head with Enyimba should hey overcome Bloemfontein Celtic of South Africa, who they beat 2-0 away in the first leg but the reverse fixture was put on hold last week due to COVID-19 restrictions.
On the other hand, Enyimba crashed at the feet of El-Mereikh of Sudan in the last qualification round of the CAF Champions League, as The Peoples’ Elephant failed to overturn a 3-0 first leg deficit and were ousted 4-2 on aggregate, after being able to win only 2-1 in Aba on Wednesday.
The result meant that Enyimba enter again dropped to the Confederation Cup draw, just as it had been last year, and they were the first team out of the pot in Friday’s ceremony, from which they got a tie against winners of the contentious clash between Rivers United and Bloemfontein.
Rivers United and Celtic were to meet in the second leg clash in Port Harcourt on Wednesday but the South Africans were not granted a requested waiver since flights from Nelson Mandela’s country have been prohibited from entering Nigeria due to a new strain of COVID-19 discovered there.
The Garden City side won the first leg clash 2-0 in Bloemfontein and will hope to sail through to the play-off round, which means they will lock horns with Enyimba in an all-Nigerian league club battle, which would bring back memories of how both sides had been locked in a protracted battle with following the Points Per Game (PPG) table format at the end of last season.
It would also become the second time two Nigerian teams will meet at this stage of the African second-tier clubs’ competition, as 2007 saw Kwara United of Ilorin reach the group stage of the competition with a 2-1 aggregate win over Nasarawa United of Lafia, who also dropped from the Champions League.
It is now left to be seen which of the two Nigerian clubs will scale through this year, following the first leg on Sunday, February 14, 2021 at Enyimba International Stadium, Aba and the reverse fixture a week later in Port Harcourt, if Rivers United overcome the South Africans.
