Nigeria champions, Enyimba FC will go all out for its first points of the group stage of this year’s CAF Champions League when the Peoples Elephant confront Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in Pretoria this afternoon.
A lone goal defeat to Zamalek of Egypt on a soggy pitch in Port Harcourt ruined the People’s Elephants’ opener to the campaign, but club boss Felix Anyansi-Agwu is optimistic his wards can secure an away win over ‘The Brazilians’ at the Luis Moripe Stadium on Wednesday evening.
“We lost the first match of the group stage at home but we have put that behind us and we have great motivation going into this match. The boys know that nothing less than an outright win will do and they will go all out for it. “We have tremendous experience at this level and we will approach the game with confidence in our ability to take the maximum three points,” Anyansi-Agwu said.
The South African champions thought they had picked up three valuable points from a 2-0 victory over Entente Setif of Algeria on Matchday 1 only to see the advantage wiped off following the expulsion of the Algerians from the competition for crowd trouble. Enyimba forward Mfon Udoh is the competition’s leading scorer with seven goals, and fancies his ability to come up with the goods at the 28,000 –capacity Luis Moripe arena.
“Against Zamalek, we did everything but just could not get the ball into the net. We will go all out against Sundowns and expect to pick three points.” The match begins at 7pm South Africa time (6pm Nigeria time). Zamalek is on holiday as Setif have been expelled. In Group A, leaders Wydad Casablanca and Zesco United of Zambia clash in the Moroccan city, while pointless Al Ahly of Egypt and ASEC Mimosas of Cote d’Ivoire do battle in Alexandria.
GROUP A Wydad Casablanca Vs Zesco United Al Ahly Vs ASEC Mimosas GROUP B Mamelodi Sundowns Vs Enyimba FC