El Merreikh cage Wolves in Warri, Enyimba thrash Burundi club 5-1

•Nasarawa in slim win in CAF Confederations cup
It was a bad beginning for Warri Wolves in their CAF Champions League yesterday, as they was beaten 1-0 by visiting El-Merreikh of Sudan at the Warri City Stadium.

But former champions, Enyimba FC of Aba look set to progress to the next stage of CAF Champions League after they thrashed Burundi’s Vital’O 5-1 in a first round first leg match in Port Harcourt yesterday.

In Warri, the visitors scored in the 17th minutes and held on till the end of the game to send Wolves supporters and fans to early bed.

Officials of Warri Wolves said yesterday that they will work hard towards the second leg in Sudan, saying victory is still possible.

Warri Wolves got to this stage by walking over their opponent in the first round of the competition. One of the officials lamented saying: “We lacked good finishers. That was our problem. Even one-on-one, we couldn’t score. I hope we get things right in Sudan. We lost more than half of our good players last year and we started recruitment a bit late for this season. We can still get it in Sudan,” the official said.

Stephen Chukwude gave Enyimba the lead in the 21st minute inside the six yard off Christian Pyagbara’s pass.Nigeria league all-time record goals scorer Mfon Udoh doubled Enyimba lead in the 28th minute, when he curled in the ball from the edge of the 18-yard box to beat goalkeeper MacArthur Arakaza.

Stephen Chukwude made it 3-0 for Enyimba with a powerful shot from the edge of the box in the 38th minute.Mfon Udoh completed a brace in the 56th minute, just two minutes after he was denied a goal by the opposing goalkeeper to make it 4-0.

Vital’O got a consolation goal in the 76th minute through Hussein Shaban, who capitalised on Emmanuel Anyanwu’s error.
The Nigeria champions were not done yet at Ugochukwu Leonard scored the fifth goal in the 85th minute.In the 44th minute, Joseph Osadiaye’s effort at goal after a good run into the Burundian team’s box was punched away by the goalkeeper for a corner.

The second leg comes up in Bujumbura next weekend. In the CAF Confederations Cup, Nasarawa United had a 1-0 slim win to walk a tight rope going into the second leg against CS Constantine of Algeria. The first leg, first round was played yesterday in Abuja. Philip Azango waited till the 86th minute to grab the match winner for Nasarawa United.

Tactically disciplined Constantine played with a man short as from the 55th minute, when Hamza Boulemdias was sent off.
Solid Miners’ Nasarawa also had to overcome a narrow 2-1 win over Generation Foot of Senegal in the preliminary round to reach this stage of the competition.The return leg match will be played in Algeria on Friday.