Rangers International of Enugu and Enyimba of Aba will again be under the bright spotlight this weekend on the continental terrain, as they both go for their second matches in the group stage of the CAF Confederations Cup, with defeats from their first games still haunting them.
While Rangers, who lost 3-1 at home against Pyramids FC of Egypt in their first match, have a tough-looking away fixture against Al-Masry of Egypt this weekend, Enyimba will play at home, as they bid to recover from a 2-0 loss away to Hassania Agadir of Morocco the last time out.
It means The Flying Antelopes have a high hurdle to scale in their first away fixture of the group stage, but The Peoples Elephant can take comfort from playing at home against less-fancied San Pedro of Cote d’Ivoire in their quest for an early revival of their continental hopes.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Enyimba’s coach, Usman Abdallah said his team will be gunning for maximum points on Sunday, when they host San Pedro at Enyimba International Stadium, Aba, as they seek to Confederation Cup campaign back on track.
The Aba-based side already look solid on their home turf, as the eight-time Nigerian domestic league champions have won five of six home games at that same stadium, hence their high level of confidence heading into Sunday’s 2pm game kick off in The City of Elephants.
The loss in Agadir has left Enyimba bottom of Group D, as San Pedro and AC Paradou of Algeria shared points in Abidjan during the group’s other opening game, but Abdallah insists his side will still make it to the knock-out stage.
Abdallah stressed: “The main goal for Sunday is to get the three points first. If it comes with some bonus of goals it will go a long way, but I think the three points is very important to get it so that we can set ourselves in the race. The players have understood the task ahead of us.
“We’ve spoken about the loss and we all understand the situation we are in and you can see the attitude in the training ground is positive. We’ve been training very hard and the response is quite interesting from the players. I’m happy with their response and their attitude in training.”
Rangers’ striker, Ifeanyi George is also leading the charge forthe Coal City side, and he told Mega Sports on Star 101.5 FM, Lagos: “We are determined to win our second game, because we want to revive our chances of qualifying from the group into the knock out stage.”
