Rivers’ Eguma promises ‘courage’ in Casablanca

by Staff Reporter

Wednesday Oct 12, 2022. 11:00

Rivers United coach Stanley Eguma has promised that his side will show “courage” in Casablanca for their return match against Wydad in the CAF Champions League.

Rivers claimed a 2-1 home win over the reigning African champions in the first leg of their second preliminary round tie this past weekend.

Strikes from Malachi Ohawume and Paul Acquah took the Port Harcourt side to victory, after WAC had claimed the lead via an away goal from Bouly Sambou.

The return game at Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca is set to be played on Sunday evening, with Rivers hoping to secure a surprise aggregate triumph and end Wydad’s title defence at the first hurdle (since they were given a bye through the first preliminary round).

The aggregate winners advance into the Champions League group stage, while the losers will ‘drop’ into the playoff round of the CAF Confederation Cup.

“It’s tight, but I am very optimistic; it’s a game of football. If you look at the standard of the game [in the first leg], Wydad AC were not far better than us,” Eguma told the club’s media, as quoted by the Daily Post.

“All we need do is to summon courage and then make our tactical plans on how to play them in Morocco. It’s a difficult terrain, but its football, it’s not mathematics.”

Eguma added, “I know a lot of people will write us off, but I want to let you know that it is not yet over.

“Within us, we know that we have a big fight to do and am assuring you that we will not go there to sleep, but to work and also put them under severe pressure to see that we get passage through to the group stage.”