Coach Eguma praises Wike for Rivers United success

Akpan Umoh, Uyo

The Rivers United Football Club Nigeria has attributed the success of the Club, so far to the Chief Financier of the club, Gov. Nyesom Wike, whose contributions has made the club to reach quarter final in CAF Confederation Cup.

Rivers United Coach, Stanley Eguma, said this in a pre match press briefing at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Saturday, 22 April 2023.

Our correspondent reports that the Totalenergies CAF Confederation Cup quarter final first leg match between Rivers United (Nigeria) and Young Africans (Tanzania) will kick off by 2pm Nigerian time in Uyo on Sunday, April 23.

Eguma said that the club has work hard to reach the quarter final, which according to him has been a very big improvement in the history of the club.

He thanked the governor for his support to the club which has moved them so far, promising that they would put in their best to win tomorrow’s match.

“Is a good development to be in the quarter final of the CAF Cup, we have laboured and work hard to this level, which of course is a very big improvement in the history of the club

“I will not fail to attribute our success to the governor of Rivers State, who has been the chief financier of the club and most importantly God Almighty, who has seen us through and the players and Technical crew who have been working very hard.

“I think is a good development that we are getting up to this stage and we will not let it off our hands immediately like that, so we are impressed with the performance,” Eguma said.

The coach called on fans in Uyo and across the country to stand by the club, come out en masse to support the club to victory.

Eguma said, “We expect fans to come out in their numbers to support the team tomorrow. We should not be allowed to look like orphans because this is our home, Nigeria is our home.”

Rivers Utd Captain, Festus Austin, said the players would put in their best to win tomorrow’s match, considering the fact that they have defeated the Young Africans before, home and away.

He said that the players have strategised to score goals in tomorrow’s match in spite of the strength of the Young Africans.

“We know what we want in this competition, people do call us underdogs, but we the players we are focused, we know what we want

“Young Africans are very good side, we played them last season, although we defeated them both home and away, that will serve as a motivation for us, but we will not let that to spoil us.

“We just want to approach every game that comes our way with 100 per cent commitment. I know at the end we are going to scale through.

“We have worked to ensure we score goals tomorrow, we have already perfected our strategies on how to score goals tomorrow,” he said.

Coach of Young Africans, Nasredinne Nabi, in his pre match briefing said that he will go back to Tazania with victory.

Nabi said that eventhough his team finished number one in his group and playing the team that finished second in their group, the players would not approach the match with any superiority in mind.

Nabi commended Nigeria for the Godswill Akpabio International stadium, saying is a very good stadium for the match.

“Our ambition has been to qualify to this stage and do the best to win the match tomorrow and return to Tazania with victory,” he said.

The Captain of Young Africans, Bernard Morrison said the players would do their best to win the match tomorrow.

He said, “Tomorrow’s game is not a joke for us, we’ve really prepared for this game and we’re determined to get to semi final.”