Sports
Enyimba, First To Qualify For Champions League Semis
Nigeria’s Enyimba International FC became the first team to qualify for the African Champions League semi-finals with a dramatic 2-1 win in Sudan over Al Hilal at the weekend.
Samuel Tswanya scored a last-minute penalty to give Enyimba the win and lift them to 11 points from their five Group A games so far.
On Saturday, Esperance joined Enyimba in the semi-finals after the Tunisians thumped Algeria’s Mouloudia Alger 4-0 at home in Group B.
Enyimba made it through despite trailing to an early Hilal goal from the competition’s top scorer Edward Sadomba, but Valentine Nwaebili cancelled that out midway through the second half.
Cameroon’s Coton Sport then moved into second spot in Group A on Saturday with a 2-1 win over visiting Raja Casablanca of Morocco.
After Bouchaib Eel-Moubarki had given Raja an 18th-minute lead, a second-half double from Baba Ousmaila secured the victory.
The result takes Coton Sport level with Hilal on seven points, but the Cameroonians have the better head-to-head goal difference.
Both Hilal and Coton Sport are away from home this weekend in their final group games as they both battle for a semi-final place.
The Cameroonians travel to face Enyimba while the Sudanese side take on Raja Casablanca in Morocco.
In Group B, Esperance sealed their place in the last four thanks to a hat-trick from Joseph Ndjeng.
After Mejdi Traore broke the deadlock nine minutes into the home clash with Mouloudia Alger, Cameroon’s Ndjeng struck in the 19th, 43rd and 60th minutes.
Esperance’s win means that six-time champions Al Ahly will be eliminated should they lose to Wydad Casablanca in Morocco.
If that happens, Ahly will be joining Egypt’s national team in the African football wilderness after the champions failed to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The Cairo-based club, who was without midfielder Hossam Ghaly (suspended) and Mohamed Barakat (injured), has not scored in its last four matches.
Wydad have been starring in the group phase, sharing six goals with Ahly in Cairo, firing four past Mouloudia, coming from two goals behind at home to hold Esperance and forcing a draw away to the same side.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor