By: Chinedum Ohanusi
Nigeria’s Enyimba Int’l FC of Aba are now out of the CAF Confederation Cup, after their improbable mission of beating Egypt’s El Zamalek SC in Cairo, ended after a 3-Nil thrashing, handed them by the Cairo giants, on Sunday.
Enyimba’s route to qualifying for the quarterfinals, was in beating Zamalek SC at their backyard, while hoping that Black Bulls FC of Maputo, wins the other Group D fixture against Al Masry FC; a game which also kicked off in the coastal town of Port Said, at 5pm (Nigerian time).
But after 90 minutes, of both games that kicked off simultaneously, two-time African Champions Enyimba FC got eliminated alongside Black Bulls FC, after the Mozambican side got trounced 3-1 by Al Masry FC.
Remarkably, the results also of both games therefore confirmed the progression of El Zamalek SC and their Egypt Premier League rivals, Al Masry FC as the two sides from Group D, that made it to the last eight, of the competition.
It took Zamalek SC until the 27th minute of asking, to get the opening goal at the Cairo International Stadium, through Mostafa Shalaby; but the visiting People Elephant from Aba rode the tide, and kept the scores at 1-0 at the break.
Zamalek SC however turned the screws, and doubled their lead, 2 minutes after the break, through Seifeddine Jaziri; and that left Enyimba, record nine-time NPFL Champions a mountain to climb.
However, Enyimba FC refused to go down without a fight, and they halved the deficit with a goal, scored in the 57th minute by rising star, Ifeanyi Ihemekwala, the 21-year-old who was the scorer of the only goal in their 1-1 draw with Al Masry FC; and got picked by Coach Stanley Eguma ahead of veteran forward Brown Ideye, who had to warm the bench.
But with Enyimba FC running out of ideas, their Egyptian hosts restored their two-goal cushion with Jaziri netting his second of the day, with 3 minutes of normal time, and added time, left to play.
No further goals were scored by either sides, and the story was almost replicated in Port Said, where Al Masry FC gave Black Bulls FC a comfortable 3-1 bashing to qualify for the first knockout phase, with 9 points; 5 points adrift of rivals Zamalek SC who finished with 14 points, and were unbeaten in all six games.
Enyimba’s ouster from the Confederation Cup, CAF’s second tier Inter-Club Competition, means there is no Nigerian team left campaigning for honours in both of CAF’s Inter-Club Championships.
Like in Group D, only two teams, will qualify from each of the four groups (A-D), for the quarterfinals; which incidentally was the point, at which Rivers United FC, then coached by veteran tactician Eguma, reached but could not advance further in two successive seasons.
