Nigeria’s representatives at the CAF Women’s Champions League, Rivers Angels, are looking beyond their opening game defeat to ASFAR Club of Morocco.
The 2020/2021 NWFL Premiership champions lost 3-0 to their Moroccan counterparts and need to win their remaining two matches to stand a chance of qualifying to the final four of the competition.
Team Coach, Edwin Okon confirmed they’ve put the experience behind them and now focused on Tuesday’s encounter with South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns. The COSAFA Champions won their opening game against Vihiga Queens.
“For now all is well with the team, we’ve rested enough and also had our first official training yesterday,” he stated.
“We will try to correct the lapses we had in our first game and ensure we give our fans back home a better performance tomorrow.
“Saturday’s loss is now behind us and the focus is on the one with Sundowns, we don’t intend to make it any easier for them or any other team going forward.
“Only way to get back our confidence is by getting the job done on the pitch on Tuesday and that will as well spur us into going further in this competition,” added Okon.
Rivers Angels forward, Rose Ekong and goalkeeper, Charlotte Adje are also confident of a positive outcome against Mamelodi Sundowns and making it out of the group.
Ekong said: “I have a lot of confidence because as it stands now the group is still open for us and I believe that we’re going to bounce back.
“As a team we are going to do better in the next game which is very important and we wouldn’t want to miss that opportunity,” she said.
Adjei expressed optimism about the team’s chances of qualifying from the group.
“We are going to give it our all against the South African team and ensure we come out tops,” she said.
“It is not over until it’s over so we still have what it takes to win and advance. We already learnt our lessons from the last game and intend to approach Tuesday’s game differently.
“I am sure we are going to qualify to the next stage of this competition. We still have the quality and strength to execute this,” added Adjei.
Kick-off time for the Rivers Angels and Mamelodi Sundowns match is by 7pm local time (6pm in Nigeria) at the Al Salam stadium.
