Head coach of Enyimba International Fatai Osho has admitted that his side has to alter their tactical approach midway into their CAF Confederation Cup 2-1 win over Entente Sportive Sétifienne.
Enyimba had to fight back as they went a goal down in the opening 13 minutes after a fine team goal from Sétif as Ahmed Kandouci squared the ball for Monsef Bakrar to score from close range. Enyimba then leveled the scores just before halftime as their skipper Austin Oladapo netted his third goal in consecutive Confederation Cup games.
Tosin Omoyele made sure of the win after an incredible piece of work by Anayo Iwuala with 60 minutes on the clock. Omoyele’s goal secured Enyimba’s second win of the group stage in their opening three games.
The gaffer of the People’s Elephants then explained that he had to tweak his tactics after the Algerian side stunned Enyimba with their own brilliant set of tactics.
“It was a keenly contested match, the Sétif team are very good on the break, Osho said.
“Every now and then, they try to run us down through the middle and their wide players comes in quickly to have the numerical advantage taking the ball forward a lot. That gave us a lot of problems in the early part of the game.
“We had to make a little adjustment. We had to bring people to the middle to slow them down, we know if they run into traffic they will not be able to do that. We were successful in doing that and the number of balls they took through the middle reduced drastically.
“That is how they posed a lot of threat and we were able to reduce the threat. In the first half, we got a penalty we lost but we still scored a goal, it could have been 2-1 with us leading. It is not really that we were out of sorts, when you are playing a football game, the opponents will have their own tactics and some of these tactics, you don’t get to know it until they start deploring it against you.
“That is what happened on the pitch, we realised quickly how they want to move the ball, how they tried for numerical strength through the middle and a lot of complaints were directed towards Faruq but it was never his fault because when there is numerical strength against him, what can he do. We realised that and we made some little adjustments.
“That was what they (ES Sétif) were playing at the time and you can see we reduced the pace at which they did it and it counted against them.”
Osho also commended the match officials for their brilliant display in the contest. “The officiating was superb. Sometimes, from your own position, you could feel it is a penalty but you have the luxury of playback and you could see that you are not really right,” Osho continued.
“At the time we thought it is a penalty, we thought the referee was wrong. These referees are prone to mistakes and you can’t say it is a mistake until you see the playback.
Osho also added that he wants his side to score more goals as qualification could be decided by goals difference but also understands that Enyimba has scored more goals that any other of their group opponents with five goals.
“I want to score goals. If you look at the group, Enyimba have scored the highest number of goals in the group, go and check it,” Osho added.
It is good we score goals and we have scored the most goals in the group.”
Story by Sammy Wejinya
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