Daily Trust

Ikpeazu in joyous mood, tasks Enyimba to win Confederat­ion Cup

- From Linus Effiong, Umuahia

The Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has congratula­ted Enyimba Internatio­nal FC of Aba on their hard-fought victory over Orlando Pirates of South Africa On Wednesday night.

The last round of matches for the group stage of the CAF Confederat­ion Cup was held on Wednesday across the continent with Enyimba needing a win against Orlando Pirates at the Enyimba Internatio­nal Stadium to be sure of qualificat­ion for the quarter -final stage.

With heightened anxiety and probable ouster from the competitio­n staring the Aba giants in the face as the game wore on, it took a moment of magic from Cyril Olisema to strike in stoppage time of 90+5 minutes to break the heart of the South Africans and ensure qualificat­ion for the Enyimba.

It was sweet revenge for Enyimba who suffered a 1-2 loss in the first leg of the encounter against their opponents from South Africa.

Basking in the euphoria of the victory, 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 Chairman, Amaju Pinnick, for their respective contributi­ons to the feat achieved by the team.

The Governor said he was “personally thrilled by the fact that matches can now be played at the Enyimba Internatio­nal Stadium by 10pm 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.”

Ikpeazu, therefore, tasked Enyimba to “keep the flag flying until we achieve our ultimate aim”.

The former African champions will know their quarterfin­al opponents today.

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