Airtel beat Ericsson to revive finals hop

Expectedly, Nigeria Telecommunications Games (NTG) newest sensation, IHS added cup holders, Etisalat, on their conquest list after a 2-0 win even, as Airtel rekindled their finals appearance ambitions with a narrow 1-0 defeat of LM Ericsson.

Assessing the tournament so far, Jimmy Sogbesan, Executive Director, Projects and Activations at Mediavision Limited described the results as “the most competitive in the five editions of the tournament. We see a new comer taking on all comers, especially the former champions that were all beaten by IHS… then there is the excitement that two teams are fighting for a place in the finals and this can only be determined by the winner takes all clash between the two, which has placed their ambitions on their boots and skill”.

With a goal scored from the spot by Musa Isa on the 73rd minute, Airtel largely added plus in their meetings with the telecommunication equipment giants, who last season won their clash in the group stage only to capitulate in the classification battle.

With a last group fixture against MTN, the Banana Island Red Boys are fancying their chances of a first ever finals and all it would take them is an outright win.

Lone goal scorer against Ericsson, Isa is confident that this season will prove better as he said post-match.

He said: “We have had a mixed run, drawing a game against Etisalat and losing to IHS but this victory is a booster for us going into the clash with MTN. We know what winning means to us and we are confident to get the result we need by God’s grace.”

On the other hand, MTN simply needs to give as much as they can take to stay on for the finals with IHS.

“We won’t be coming to play for a draw even when that is all we need to scale through. Our target is to qualifying as winners and