Enyimba of Aba coach, Usman Abdallah has stated delight with his club’s return to winning ways in the CAF Confederation Cup, and believes their rise to second position in their group is a good boost to their hopes of making the knock-out stage.
Megasportsafrena.com reports that, speaking against the back-drop of last weekend’s hard-earned 1-0 win against visiting San Pedro FC of Cote d’Ivoire, Abdallah admitted The Peoples’ Elephant had it tough, but stressed that they truly deserved the result in Aba.
He also acknowledged it was a welcome relief getting victory at Enyimba International Stadium, Aba, as worries had spread among all Nigerians after the squad lost their first match in Group-D, 2-0 away to Hassania Agadir of Morocco, which left them bottom of the log, after San Pedro got a draw with Paradou Athletic Club of Algeria in Ivory Coast.
Nonetheless, it was an exciting and expectant atmosphere in The City of Elephants, as Enyimba returned to winning ways, despite San Pedro causing an early scare when they thought they got the lead after just eight minutes, but Kofi Gueye’s effort into the net was ruled out for offside.
Cheick Soumaro had another chance for the visitors at the 20th minute but his shot from close range went just wide as the exciting first half ended goalless, after which Martins Esule went on in place of Sampson Obi and scored the game’s lone goal in the 64th minute.
The lackluster performance from Enyimba led to heated reactions from their fans, even as their captain, Ifeanyi Anaemena sustained an injury and had to be replaced by Abiodun Adebayo, but Abdallah, said he is just happy his team got the required three points at stake to go second.
Abdallah: “The 2pm schedule for the match was no excuse for our poor first half performance, but we have had too many injuries, coupled with the injection of new players who are yet to understand other players in the team fully.
“All the same, I want to assured our fans and Nigerian that will improve from game to game. We are happy that we are now second on the group table, and we will keep working hard to do better and qualify. We will not waste time to get to the required level we need to be.”
