CAF CUP: Rivers United set to battle Rayon Sports

The head coach of Rivers United Stanley Eguma has expressed the need for a positive result when his side will face Rwanda’s Rayon Sports in their first leg play-offs of the CAF Confederation Cup on Sunday in Port Harcourt.

The Nigeria Professional Football League side were knocked out of the CAF Champions League by El Merreikh of Sudan 4-3 on aggregate and dropped down to the second-tier Confederation Cup.

“We are really preparing for the game against Rayon Sports and at this stage we need good results with a good number of goals as well,” Eguma told Caf website.

“We need to win, especially at home. Also, we need to make our fans especially the Governor (Nyesom Wike) happy because he has done so much to make sure we excel, and we hope to justify that this weekend.

“I know Rayon Sport is a very strong, young and energetic team; they have a lot of youthful players and can cause an upset but I know my boys will do the needful on that day.”

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Eguma however pointed out that they will not underrate Rayon.

He said: “Rayon are not a small team in their league. They have won their league many times and they are currently leading the Rwandan league.

“They have not been struggling as we have been doing here. Although their league may be ranked lower than ours, we have to tackle the match with all seriousness and make efforts to wrap it up in the first leg here.

Meanwhile, Rayon coach, Djuma Masudi, said they were out to make history by beating Rivers at home.

“This is a lifetime chance for the team to record the biggest milestone in the history of this club, going by our form in the national league and how the players have responded in training, I’m hopeful we can get a positive away result,” Masudi was quoted to have said.

“From what we know about our opponents they have had a poor run of games at their home ground; however, that does not mean that we can afford to underestimate them, they finished second in the Nigerian league last season.”

After the first leg this weekend, the return leg will take place on Saturday, 22 April in Kigali.

 

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