• Jubilant Ikpeazu tasks Enyimba to win CAF Confederation Cup
• Quarterfinals draw holds today
Despite his club’s 0-1 loss to Enyimba in their last group game of the CAF Confederation Cup on Wednesday night, Orlando Pirates’ Coach, Josef Zinnabauer, is happy with the experience his young side had in Aba.
Enyimba scored a 95th minute goal through Cyril Olisema to leapfrog Pirates on the Group A table, but both teams qualified for the quarterfinals of the competition.
Zinnabauer featured Thabiso Monyane and Thabiso Sesane in the game as injury forced out Thembinkosi Lorch, Zakhele Lepasa and Jean-Marc Makusu, among others, from the game against the Peoples’ Elephant.
Assessing his team’s performance at the end of the game, Zinnabauer said: “We have to keep fighting. It was a good experience for our young players.
“We had a lot of young boys on the field today, especially as substitutes. Monyane and Sesane came in the second half – these players who are 17, 18, 19 years old.
“So, it’s a good experience for these players. We need these players and they can give us options when we have injury worries.
“I am not happy with the result, but the performance was good. A draw was the target, but we lost the game at the last minute.
“It was a fair game, we lost it and that can be. Congratulations to Enyimba, congratulations to us for qualifying but it was a tough game for us,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, yesterday congratulated Enyimba on their victory.
A jubilant Ikpeazu took to his official Twitter handle, @GovernorIkpeazu to express his delight at the victory, thanking God for ‘His grace’, the players for rising to the challenge, the supporters, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and its president, Amaju Pinnick, for their respective contributions to the feat achieved by the team.
The governor, who said he was “personally thrilled by the fact that matches can now be played at the Enyimba International Stadium by 10. 00 p.m. with floodlights on an ultra modern turf, complimented by a digital scoreboard all of which were provided by our Administration and which also attracted accolades from the match commentators,” tasked the team to “keep the flag flying until we achieve our ultimate aim.”
The draw for the quarterfinal stage will hold today at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
The teams in the quarterfinals are Raja Casablanca of Morocco, Egypt’s Pyramids, JS Kabylie of Algeria, Cameroun’s Coton Sport, ASC Jaraaf of Senegal and CS Sfaxien of Tunisia.
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