Enyimba International of Aba will now turn their focus on trying to reach the group stage of this year’s CAF Confederation Cup, following their inability to turn the table against El-Merriekh of Sudan in the CAF Champions League.
Megasportsarena.com reports that The Peoples’ Elephant had an uphill task on their hands, after losing the first leg 3-0 away last week and their efforts to turn the tide on Wednesday proved abortive, as they could only muster a 2-1 win at home.
Victor Mbaoma scored a brace in the 2-1 victory over El-Merreikh, but his efforts were not just good enough, as Enyimba crashed out of the CAF Champions League 4-2 on aggregate.
The going got pretty tough for Fatai Osho’s men whe they fell behind inside the opening five minutes of the encounter, after Saif Terry scored early to extend El Merreikh’s aggregate lead against the two-time winners.
Terry, who also scored a hat-trick in the first-leg win in Omdurman, put the Nigerian side on a cliffhanger and, though Mbaoma drew the hosts level nine minutes later, The Elephants of Aba needed to score four unreplied goals to secure their place in the competition, but could only breach the Merreikh defence once again.
Mbaoma then converted from the spot after Kadiri Samad was tripped in the box. The goal halved the aggregate deficit but the Aba-based team failed to produce any more goals and will now drop to the playoff round of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Mbaoma, who missed the first leg in Sudan due to injury, put Enyimba in front in the 51st minute from the penalty spot after Samad Kadiri was upended inside the box, but his teammates were not clinical in front of goal and the two-time African champions miss out on a hefty price fee of $550,000 (about 253 million Naira).
