Enyimba chief Coach, Fatai Osho said his players gave themselves too much to do by allowing Al Merreikh score an early goal in Aba.
Osho watched his team crash out of the Champions League, despite beating Al Merreikh 2 – 1 in the second-leg of the first round qualifying match on Wednesday.
Saif Terry gave the Sudanese an early lead in Aba but Enyimba’s striker Victor Mbaoma replied with two goals, which was not enough to send the side through.
The Sudanese giants however advanced to the group phase 4-2 on aggregate, while the Nigerian side drops to the CAF Confederation Cup competition.
Speaking to the media after the final whistle, Osho said conceding on a day they needed to score four goals, affected his team’s psychologically.
“It’s quite clear that the early goal unsettled us, looking at the first leg, their number 9 ( Saif Terry) did a lot of work and we should have closed him down much earlier before he scored the goal,” said the Enyimba Coach.
“We recognised that Terry has power and we worked to silent him, we were able to do that after he scored the goal.
“The goal he scored today (Wednesday) is different from the ones he scored in Omdurman, but the boys tried their best.
“Going behind affected us, but we tried to make amend, but it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t score more.
“We knew that we might win but not qualify and we make it clear to them, we won and we are out,” He said.
Enyimba will now join Rivers United in the CAF Confederations Cup competition and both teams will be hoping to reach the Group stage.
COMMENTS