Rivers United coach, Stanley Eguma, has faulted their home defeat in the first leg quarter-final clash of the CAF Confederation Cup against Young Africans of Tanzania to injuries, which kept some of the key players out of the encounter, The PUNCH reports.
The Nigeria Professional Football League champions failed fell to a 2-0 defeat at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Sunday.
Two second half goals from Congolese striker, Fiston Mayele, condemned Eguma’s side to their first home defeat in the competition, leaving them with a mountain to climb in the second leg, which comes up next Sunday in Dar es Salam.
After threatening and keeping their hosts at bay for most parts of the game, Mayele broke the deadlock in the 74th minute with a precise finish to an inch-perfect pass from captain Nondo Mwannyeto.
The Congolese completed his brace with another calm finish after a brilliant counter attack by the visitors for his third goal of the campaign.
The pride of Rivers missed Morice Chukwu to suspension while Joseph Onoja and the club’s highest goal scorer in the competition, Paul Acquah were also absent due to injury. Williams Ukeme and left-back, Ebube Duru, were also forced out during the games due to injuries as well.
“I will say it was a bad day for us. We didn’t get our acts right. We had some scoring chances in the first half but we couldn’t convert until the opponents scored in the second half and they came out to play. They equally got the second from a counter.
“I believe we have learnt our lessons and some of our key players that were missing would have made some difference for us,” Eguma said after the game.
The reigning NPFL champions now need to beat the Tanzanians by at least two goals without conceding, to stand a chance of progressing to the next round.
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