Enyimba have beaten Tim Sukazi Galaxy of South Africa 2-0 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup playoffs stage after goals from Victor Mbaoma and Martin Usule seled the win for the People’s Elephant going into the return leg.
The eight times Nigerian Champions began the game on a fast pace and they were rewarded with the curtain raiser in the eighth minute through Mbaoma who struck after a good footwork from Abdulrahman Bashir.
As it was the norm in previous games, Enyimba missed many chances and they were even saved from conceding a goal at home as the referee spotted an offside in the build up to TS Galaxy’s cancelled goal.
The first half ended with Enyimba leading by a lone goal but Usman Abd’Allah made two changes that brought more vibe into the game in the second half.
It was no surprise one of the substitutes, Usule scored the second goal despite the striker’s yellow card offence about five minutes after his introduction.
TS Galaxy didn’t give much away again after that goal even though Enyimba didn’t help their cause too with some wayward finishing from the half chances they created.
Battleground shifts to South Africa where the second leg game will be played this weekend with the winner on aggregate qualifying for the group stage of the Africa’s second tier club competition.
Enyimba got to the semi- final stage of this competition in 2018 before bowing out to eventual Champions, Raja Casablanca.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s spate of losses to Togo seems unabated as the country’s representatives in CAF Confederation lost 2-1 in added time to Togo’s ASC Kara yesterday.
It is the third time in four weeks that Nigerian teams have lost to Togo. The Togolese eliminated Nigeria from both WAFU Cup and African Nations Championships.
In Sunday’s match at the Kégué Stadium, Mani Sapol shot the home side ahead in the 29th minute. But Rangers responded swiftly with an equalizer three minutes later.
Rangers held on gamely till a minute into the added time when Nane Richard got ASC Kara the winning goal. Rangers have the return leg in Enugu to overturn the defeat.
