Enyimba International on Sunday, defeated Rivers United in the keenly contested CAF Confederation Cup qualifier with 5-4 penalty shoot-out after the 90 minutes ended with Rivers United winning 1-0.
Enyimba last week in Aba during the first leg encounter,won 1-0 courtesy of a strike from Cyril Oliseme.
Goal Keeper ,John Nobble, became the hero of the match , having scored the decisive penalty to advance into the next stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Rivers United was close to scoring in the 3rd minutes of the game but were denied by Goal Keeper John Noble with a master class save.
The People’s Elephant took possession of the game as a strike from Samad Kadiri hit the wood work in 15 minutes of the game in spite the stretching from Theophilus Afolokai.
Enyimba continues to pile pressure on Rivers United in the first half and Afolokai once again in the 30th minute came to the rescue of Rivers United when Anayo Iwuala’s freekick almost defined the moment for Enyimba.
But argument ensued in the 35th minutes when Cletus Emotan of Rivers United had a hard tackle but aggressively hit Anthony Omaka back and received a Yellow Card for the retaliation .
Fortune Omoniwari capitalized on Malachi Ohawume failed goal scoring attempt to slot in 1-0 United 40 minutes into the first half.
Rivers United dominated part of the game in the second half but were constantly checked by Enyimba defence.
Speaking after the match, Enyimba International Coach ,Fatai Osho said the Club had come to PortHarcourt prepared and had the winning mentality.
He further expressed displeasure over the bad nature of the Rivers United pitch which according to him ought to have been worked on.
The match winner,John Nobble said he was excited as a PortHarcourt boy to inflict the wound on Rivers United, adding that nobody knew he was a good penalty taker.
Cyril Oliseme lost his penalty which almost demoralized the people’s Elephant.
The Chairman of Enyimba Chief Felix Anyansi Agwu who was full of praise for his players,said the club is charged to give Nigeria a quality representation as the only Nigerian contingent remaining in the CAF competition.
He maintained that Enyimba is going to win the tournament as their efforts in the competition will not be in vain, while charging his lads not to relax as there are more higher mountains to climb.
“We are going to give Nigeria quality representation and will compete to win the tournament because the efforts we made so far will not be in vain.
