Mixed reactions trail ousting of Rangers, Rivers Utd from CAF Champions League

It wasn’t a very fine weekend for Nigerian football as the two representatives of the country in the CAF Champions League, Rangers International and Rivers United, crashed out of the continent’s foremost club competition in the round-of-32.

Leading 3-0 from the first leg, Rivers United blew away their advantage as they lost 4-0 against Sudan’s Al-Merreikh in their second leg clash on Saturday to lose out 4-3 on aggregate.

On their part, Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) champions, Enugu Rangers, couldn’t overturn their first-leg 4-1 deficit against Egypt’s Zamalek SC in the return leg clash that ended 2-1 in their favour at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium on Sunday.

Senator Obinna Ogba

Reacting to the ouster of Enugu Rangers from the CAF competition, Senate Committee Chairman on Sports, Senator Obinna Ogba, blamed poor officiating and urged newly appointed CAF Executive member, Amaju Pinnick to wade into the boardroom politics allegedly denying Nigerian clubs of a level playing field on the continent during competitions.

The former NFF Vice President insisted that the Referee waved off two legitimate penalty in favour of the Enugu side.

LMC director, Mike Idoko

The Lobi Stars chief and League Management company (LMC) director, Mike Idoko, has blamed inadequate information about their opponents as the reason why Nigeria’s representatives were knocked out of the Champion’s League.

The football administrator, as quoted by Football Live, stressed that it was important to ascertain several off-field factors that could also impact game strategy. “The clubs failed to do a thorough job in gathering information about their opponents and hence paid the price for the sloppiness.”

Nigeria international, Chisom Chikatara

The former Abia Warriors star Chikatara, who currently plays for Wydad Casablanca of Morocco and hasn’t played in any competition for three months due to injury, told Complete Sports on Monday: “My commiserations to Rangers and Rivers United. I guess people back home are not happy because no Nigerian team will play in the group stages.

“For me the lesson there will be to prepare better next time by doing very good recruitment and traveling early for acclimatization.

“Some people have suggested that the Nigeria Football Federation should see clubs playing in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup as extensions of the national team and support them in whatever way they can.”

Read Also: Enugu Rangers, Rivers Utd crash out of CAF Champions League

Nigeria international, Kingsley Sokari

Former Youth international and CS Sfaxien of Tunisia attacking midfielder, Kingsley Sokari, who was key in his side’s advancement to the group stages of the CAF Champions league at the expense of Cameroon club Young Sport Academy during the weekend, opined that football has gone unpredictable at very recently, and wished the ousted Nigerian teams well in the Confederation Cup.

“That’s football for you. You cannot predict football these days and besides the teams (Enugu Rangers and Rivers United) played against very good sides.

“I hope the two teams achieve better results in the playoffs for the Confederation Cup. I wish them well.”

Al-Merrikh ace, Kelechi Osunwa

A Rivers State born Nigerian footballer, Kelechi Osunwa, who plies his trade in Sudan with Al-Merrikh – the club that overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit with a 4-0 victory in the return leg against Rivers United on Saturday – told Supersport that Rivers United took their foot off the gas and duly paid the price.

“Next time, they (Rivers United) should try not to relax when they have a 3-0 first leg advantage.

“They must also work hard in the second leg. Those were the major lapses I noticed in the Rivers United side and they fell (in Omdurman).

“This is football where you cannot predict what can happen in 90 minutes,” he said.

Al-Merrikh ace, Dayo Ojo

Another Nigerian player on the books of the Sudanese club, Dayo Ojo, who joined in January from Sunshine Stars, identified the important role played by the over 50,000 fans who were at the top of their voices throughout the game at the Al-Merrikh Stadium, Omdurman on Saturday.

“We believed we could do it because we spoke to ourselves and decided that if Rivers United could score three goals (in Port Harcourt), we could (also) score four goals at home,” Dayo told Supersport.

“Nigerian football fans must learn from Al-Merrikh in the area of supporting their teams.

“The support we got from our fans against Rivers United (in Omdurman) was very very good and that is how we see it every day in domestic and continental matches.

“The fans must continue to support the teams whether they are doing well or not,” he said.

Ultimately, the Nigerian teams, Rivers United and Rangers International, will now drop to the CAF Confederation Cup play-off round, while Al-Merrikh and Zamalek advance into the Champions League group stage.

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