Coach Paul Aigbogun of Enyimba International of Aba, says the team has chances despite losing to Zamalek of Egypt in a Confederation of African Champions League group match. Enyimba lost 0-1 to Zamalek in a group B match played at the Adokiye Amiesimaka stadium, Port Harcourt, on Sunday.
Basem Abdalla scored for Zamalek in the 8th minute. Aigbogun said at a post match news conference that despite losing the match, Enyimba had learnt some lessons. ” We dominated at least, 80 per cent of the game. But in football, you can dominate without putting the ball in the net.
“ We have taken a lot of positive points from the game. Zamalek is not a bad team and I think the goal they scored, was a mistake by us. “ We will go back and plan. All the players are down, but full of confidence and I am proud of the players, just unfortunate, we could not score,” he said. Aigbogun also said Enyimba was still optimistic of a good outing in their next match against Sundowns of South Africa.
“ We are in a tough group. We will play our remaining matches with confidence,” he said. Enyimba Captain, Chinedu Udoji, said the team had not lost hope despite losing to Zamalek. He said they were hopeful of better outings in their next matches. Zamalek Coach, Mohamed Helmy, said they had respect for Enyimba despite winning the game. “ I have all the respect for Enyimba, it’s a strong team with good players. Results of this kind of game are only one goal difference as we have seen today.
“ After we scored, we tried to defend, to keep the goal and did our best and achieved what we came here for,” he said. Helmy praised Nigerians for cheering them despite the loss. “ We really appreciate this,” he said. Enyimba will play Sundowns in South Africa on June 29 in their next group B match.