CONFED CUP: Not Time For Celebration Yet - Eguma

CONFED CUP: Not Time For Celebration Yet - Eguma

Precious Oham

Technical Adviser of Rivers United, Stanley Eguma has said it is not yet time to celebrate after his side's narrow win over Club Africain of Tunisia in the CAF Confederation Cup, BSNSports.com.ng reports. 

Nyima Nwagua's solitary strike was the difference as Rivers United claimed a hard-fought victory over their Tunisian opponents at the Godswill Akpabio Int'l Stadium, Uyo on Sunday. 

According to Eguma, his team could have scored more goals but believes that the victory will boost the morale of his players ahead of the next encounter. 

While promising to work on their inability to convert goals scoring chances, Eguma noted that his players were tactically disciplined to ensure they ran out victorious.

"We have very strong teams in the group. Today, we’ve picked three points but it’s not yet time for celebration because we have other games to play. We’ll go back to Tunis, to ensure we keep a clean slate and then, face other challenges after now.

"It was a good and highly technical game. I give kudos to my players for keeping up with their tactical discipline in this game. Club Africain is a good team, there’s no doubt as they played with a lot of tactics.

“All our tactical plans worked because the players were able to keep their heads down and adhere to instructions.

“Our opponents were very fast with the ball, and we tried to calm them down to cool the tempo of the game to our own pace. We dictated the tempo of the game until the later part of the first half when we got the goal.

"In the second half, we knew that they were almost getting tired, so we tried to keep possession but we discovered that they were now using long through balls transitions. That was where we had problems trying to curtail them. My players held their heads and did that perfectly until we got to the end of the game.

"We will try to improve our attack because if we had been a bit more clinical today, we could’ve had more than one goal. We need to improve on our finishing for us to get results away from home. We’ve to work on that, in order to come out better in subsequent games.

“It’s a big win that has raised the psyche of the players. It’s going to do a lot for us because we’ve beaten one of Tunisia’s top teams.” The Rivers-born tactician concluded.

The Nigerian flag bearers now have six points from three matches to go joint top of Group C with Club Africain, as Dreams FC of Ghana won 3-2 at APC do Lobito of Angola to stay third in the standings also with six points.