Rahimo coach praises wards despite 0-5 thumping by Enyimba

Despite surrendering their CAF Champions League ambition to Nigeria’s Enyimba, Rahimo FC of Burkina Faso Coach, Firnin Sanon is proud of his team.

Enyimba beat Rahimo FC 5-0 in Aba on Sunday to move to the next round of the CAF Champions League qualifying series, where they will meet Sudan’s Al Hilal. The first leg in Ouagadougou ended 1-0 in Rahimo’s favour but the Burkinabes were reduced to 10 men early on Sunday en route Enyimba’s comprehensive victory.

Rahimo FC is an academy side formed in 2012 by Rahimo Oudrago, their president.

Speaking after the game on Sunday, Sanon described the early dismissal of Zonon Issouf, who scored his team’s lone goal in the first leg, as the tipping point in the game.

He also accused the referees of bias, claiming that his side should have been awarded a penalty for ‘a foul’ by Theophilus Afelokhai in the game.

He said: “We are a very young team, participating in continental football for the first time.

“We came here to learn from our bigger brothers, Enyimba. We have no worries about losing, but the 5-0 scoreline is too devastating.
“The red card to Issouf affected us, missing our best player after just eight minutes of a match of this magnitude and importance against an established team like Enyimba can clearly unsettle a team.

“Playing Enyimba for 82 minutes without our best player isn’t an easy task.

And we saw such an incident when Enyimba goalkeeper (Afelokhai) fouled our player which should have been a red card and a penalty, but the referee waved it out.’’

He said his team would regroup for the CAF Confederation, adding that they have learned so much from the games against Enyimba.

In his reaction, Enyimba Coach, Usman Abd’Allah said the Burkina Faso side lost the tie in the first leg.

According to Abd’Allah, the Burkina Faso side had the opportunity to establish an unassailable lead in Ouagadougou, but failed to make their chances count.

He said Enyimba were hampered by late preparation, adding, however, that his boys showed why they are Nigerian champions.

“We started our preparation late. It was just 10 days or less than two weeks of training before the first leg match in Burkina Faso.

“The 1-0 defeat we suffered in Ouagadougou did not reflect the true flow of the game. It could have been much more which would have put us in more difficult position.

“They lost the game at home in the first leg, not today.

“We are still rebuilding. Today, you saw three players sharing five goals in the game. It points out the fact we are gradually building up and hopefully, we will get better,” he said.