Enyimba’s coach, Usman Abd’llah is relieved that his team has finally progressed to the next round of the CAF Champions League. The Aba Elephants smashed Rahimo FC 5-0 in Aba to progress 5-1 on aggregate.
“I am very relieved because you’ve seen the boys were very prepared because we worked very hard even though it wasn’t easy.
Coach Abd’llah understands the importance of fitness to his players. The team played series of friendly games to keep themselves in shape and coach Abd’llah believes it finally yielded benefits.
“I think we should continue this work that we’ve been doing because we can see the profit in it. So the boys have to be super, super fit; that is the only way we can execute our own plans.
The match in Ouagadougou was difficult for the team as they narrowly escaped a heavy defeat thereby giving the team a feasible lifeline but heaped a mountain of pressure on Enyimba’s technical crew. In an honest submission, Abd’llah says it was one of his most stressful games.
“It’s one of the stressful matches I’ve had because having seen the match over there (in Ouagadougou), we were very lucky because it would have been tougher around here.
There are positives to pick from the victory apart from the goals, surely he took note of them all.
“So the good thing is we saw the team, we came back and worked on our weaknesses and finally you can see the job is done clean. We are happy.
“I think we still have work to do, we still have a lot. We can’t be perfect. Every time we have to work.”
Enyimba face Al Hilal of Sudan in the next round of the competition with their first leg tie in Aba on September 15 and will hope to make it to the group stages.