Rivers United Football Club on Sunday beat visiting Rayon Sports of Rwanda 2-0 in the first leg tie of their CAF Confederation Cup second round of 16 fixture. Newsmen report that the match was played at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt. Rivers United Willie Udube, Assistant Coach of Rivers United, told sportswriters after the game that though his team won but they could not execute their game plan. “We had our game plan. The match didn’t go the way we wanted and we ended up having only two goals. We are going home now to work on the players
. “We found out that the boys from Kigali are very good. They are ball jugglers. We need to neutralise the ball juggling spirit in them. “While football is not mathematics, we have however learnt our lessons and I strongly believe that with hardwork, we will win in Kigali,” he said. Udube said Rivers United were under pressure during the match because of the current form and position of the team in ongoing competitions. “I want to say that we are under pressure. We are trying to pick the pieces and put the team together and get something. “Before now, you will come here and watch a team that is winning with confidence. But now things are different and the boys have been losing confidence. “It is left for the technical team to put confidence in the boys by encouraging them and teach them what to do,” he added. Festus Austin, captain of Rivers United, said they had hoped to score more goals but succeeded in scoring only two goals. “We hope to improve because I appreciate that the fact that our opponents our good. “We learnt a lot from the game we played in Sudan, against El-Merreikh. We will talk to ourselves and get a good result in Rwanda,” he said. Coach Masoudi Juma of Rayon Sports, on his part, said he accepted the defeat as a sportsman. ‘`I have studied United. I’ve seen their strengths and weaknesses and known how to prepare ahead for the second leg. “It’s a 180 minutes game. We just played 90 minutes, we will prepare for the remaining 90 minutes. “There is no game that is the same. Today is 2-0, it could be 7-0 against them or us. Anything can happen,” he said. Emeka Atuloma had, with a brilliant finishing, put Rivers United in the lead in the 29th minute, while Guy Kuemian scored the second goal in the 51st minute.(
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