Enyimba head coach, Fatai Osho has alluded that his side faced in recent time one of the meanest and hard as nail opponents, Rahimo FC of Burkina Faso in the CAF Champions League competition.
Both champions clashed in the Africa’s prime interclub competition two-legged preliminary round in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Aba, Nigeria in a space of one week with the nation’s campaigners progressing to the first round of the competition on 2-1 aggregate.
The Nigerian champions piped their Burkinabe opposite 1-0 in the first leg clash in Ouagadougou on Sunday, November 29 while both sides shared the spoils one goal apiece in the reverse fixture clash in Aba on Sunday, December 06.
Osho said the Burkinabe champions came into the game with a mindset that the clash is an outright win or burst encounter as far as their dream of progression into the competition is concerned.
“Rahimo FC are formidable team, the fact that we won them away made people to think they are walkovers or pushovers but that was not the case as they are truly formidable team.
“Rahimo FC had three Dutch expatriates in their squad handed the marching order to achieve victory in Nigeria.
“After our win in Ouagadougou we knew our work is well cut out, we knew we must work extremely hard back home in Aba for us to get the desired result.
“We knew too that Rahimo FC will throw everything in them at us right here in Aba knowing that if they fail to get the needed result it will be all over for them in the competition.
“Rahimo FC were battle ready well aware that one goal would not be enough to see they progress, we too could have taken the match beyond their reach as soon as we started the match but we were outright wasteful.
“That’s the area we need to urgently work on because we should be able to make use of our chances.
“However, yesterday (Sunday) was a delight to the little fans that were able to make it to the stadium, they must have gone home really happy,” said the former Remo Stars tactician.
Osho said his side will be ready to give good account of themselves against the Sudanese opponents, Al-Merrikh Sports Club in the first round of the competition.
“Yes, anybody conversant with the CAF Champions League will tell you once you get to the first round it’s now for the big boys, you meet big teams, you can get to play the defending champions, Al-Ahly SC, the Ismaily SC, the Mamelodi Sundowns of this world, among others.
“Pairing us against Al-Merrikh is something that is expected, they are traditional team in Africa, they have pedigree too in the Champions League, we will give them their due respect.
“Of course, we know that our preparations will be top-notch going up in a contest with them in just two-week time.
“We are returning to our training session this evening (Monday), there is no time to waste. We will start immediately looking out material on them and start to work on it, they too will equally be looking at what they could get about us.
“That’s the level or stage of the competition we are at the moment and we believe quite well that we will really compete very well against them,” said Osho.
Osho said not playing first either at home or away confers nobody advantage but adequate and proper preparations.
“I do not see it that way because the fans are not going to be in the stadium so where is the advantage. If the fans are to be there may be there would be some advantages either playing home or away first.
“Fans are usually there to motivate their teams but this time they will not be there so there is no advantage, it will just be the two teams playing.
“At this stage of the competition officiating is superb there is relatively no advantage whether you are playing first home or away.
“Of course, we know of some teams who actually played home first before going away and many of them have been knocked out of the competition so there is no way to pinpoint who wins the key to victory is adequate preparations,” said Osho.
The nation’s representatives will travel to Omdurman, Sudan to keep a date with Al-Merrikh SC in the weekend of December 22-23 while the reverse clash will hold in Aba in the weekend of January 5-6, 2021. Aggregate winners of the two-legged clash will progress to the lucrative group stage of the competition.
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