Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt will go for the maiden CAF Women’s Champions League finals in Egypt later this year as runners-up from West Africa B, after they failed to beat Hassacas Ladies of Ghana in the final, megasportsarena.com reports.
Despite having earlier beaten the same team in their opening match of the regional qualifiers in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Coach Edwin Okon’s girls failed to hold their own and allowed their hyper-charged opponents exert revenge.
In what appeared to be a case of overconfidence, The Garden City side took their feet of the throttle and allowed Hasaacas Ladies win the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) Zone B title with a 3-1 win in the final of the qualifying competition that started last Sunday.
A report by aclsports.com revealed in part: Hasaacas proved pundits right that they were out for revenge against Rivers Angels as Veronica Appiah opened the scoring less than two minutes into kickoff with the Ghanaian champions ruling much of the early exchanges.
Angels stood taller when the two teams clashed in the preliminary round with a 1-0 score. The Nigerian side fought back to pull level by the 10th minute through Ikechukwu Vivian and visibly took control of the game but much of their effort was thwarted by goalkeeper Grace Buodou.
The Ghanaians woke up from their slumber and heaped multiple threats on Angels’ half but defenders Imuran Rofiat and Polinus Ifeoma stopped incursions from Doris Boaduwaa, Evelyn Badu and Rahama Jafaru to keep the scoreline at 1-1 by the half-hour mark.
The girl everybody wanted to see on display did not live up the expectations in first half. Ezenagu Ogochukwu was policed by Hasaacas defence, but she was able to drive a three- person dribble before crashing her effort against a defender at the edge of the box.
Hasaacas Ladies stunned Angels defence with a free-kick from Perpetual Agyeman that floated into the back net to put the Ghanaians ahead once more by the 45 minute. Angels had no much time to react as both teams went for halftime with Hasaacas leading 2-1.
After the break, Rivers Angels showed more determination. Ogochukwu led the chase, displaying more dribbling skills than what the public had seen so far. However, Hasaacas goalie, Buodou, perhaps the best of the tournament, stopped all the Nigerian inward balls.
The game gradually delved into a balanced tempo as Angles began to show signs of frustrations. Hasaacas eventually grew stronger, and after a coup of attempts, they scored the third goal following a defensive blunder.
A defender gifted Azumah Bugre a ball in the box which she lobbed easily beyond goalkeeper, Whyte Ibubeleye. Rivers Angels fought hard to get at least a goal to raise their hopes for an equalizer.
However, fatigue coupled with aimless runs could not help matters as Hasaacas sealed their 3-1 victory to claim the WAFU Zone B women title. Both teams have also qualified for the maiden edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League.
