Enyimba football club’s chance of moving to the next round of the CAF Champions League suffered a setback following a 0-0 with 27-time Sudanese Champions, Al Hilal
Enyimba started brightly looking to get the opening goal and came close in the 3rd when Nelson Ogbonnaya headed Stanley Okorom’s freekick to the side net. In the 7th minute, Stanley Okorom’s freekick did little to trouble Yonis Hassan in for Al Hilal.
Enyimba’s efforts almost paid off as Stanley Dimgba’s cross into the box into the box could not be met by blue shirts in the box as the goal literarily begged to be converted.
Al Hilal’s defense made Enyimba to resort to long balls as Oladapo’s and Okorom’s long range efforts missed the net in the 14th and 16 minutes respectively.
The match took a dramatic turn in the 20th minute when Nazar Hamid was shown a straight red card by Congolese referee, Jean Jacques for a hitting Daniel Darkwah who was not with the ball.
Stanley Okorom’s frequent crosses into the box were wasted as no blue shirt in the box made effort to connect.
In the 41st minute, Onuwa sent a through pass to Samson Obi who failed to convert. In the 45th minute, Onuwa sent a fine pass to Reuben Bala who came face-to-face with Yonis but failed to convert
The second half started with Enyimba pressing for a goal but missed chances. Enyimba had a scare in the 68th minute when Al Hilal got their first chance of the game but failed to convert from a one-on-one position.
The introduction of Martins Usule for Onuwa gave spark to the Enyimba attack as they pushed for a goal with Usule coming close many times.
Enyimba’s efforts proved abortive as the game came to a close.