Enyimba Coach Usman Abd’Allah, has admitted that his team’s progress to the next phase of the Caf Champions League was a big relief after they needed to upturn the defeat suffered in the first-leg.
Having lost 0-1 in the first leg in Ougadougou a fortnight ago, the People’s Elephant required a two-goal victory but got much more as they pummeled Rahimo 5-0 in Sunday’s reverse fixture in Aba.
A solitary goal in the first half and four more in the second helped Enyimba advance in style to the next round of the Champions League with a 5-1 aggregate win over their opponents from Burkina Faso.
In the second qualifying round, set to take place on the weekends of September 13 and 27, Enyimba will face Al Hilal of Sudan.
“I am very relieved because you’ve seen the boys were very prepared because we worked very hard even though it wasn’t easy,” Abd’Allah said in a post-match interview.
“It’s one of the stressful matches I’ve had because having seen the match over there (in Ouagadougou), we were very lucky because it would have been tougher around here.
“So the good thing is we saw the team, we came back and worked on our weaknesses and finally you can see the job is done clean. We are happy.”
Despite the big win over Rahimo, the Enyimba manager believes his team is work in progress and would have to put in extra effort to stay in contention in the Champions League.
“I think we should continue this work that we’ve been doing because we can see the profit in it. So the boys have to be super, super fit; that is the only way we can execute our own plans.” Abd’Allah continued.
“I think we still have work to do, we still have a lot. We can’t be perfect. Every time we have to work”