The three Nigeria Professional Football League sides involved in Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions on Sunday shared all possible outcomes from a football game in their first leg ties.
Reigning league Champions Plateau United won, second placed MFM drew while AITEO Cup winners Akwa United shockingly lost at home in their respective competitions.
Plateau United and MFM were featuring in the Champions League for the first time and both secured decent results ahead of the second leg in ten days time.
United thrashed Cameroonian Champions Eding Sport 3-0 in Jos to put themselves in pole position to reach the next round ahead of the return leg in Yaounde next midweek.
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Elijah Ogene gave the hosts the lead on nineteen minutes, turning home a rebound after Tosin Omoyele’s spot kick was saved.
Kennedy Boboye’s men were made to wait till the dying moments of the game though as Sunday Ingbede scored with three minutes left before Joshua Obaje added icing on the cake in stoppage time.
MFM FC also went in front in their own tie at Real Bamako courtesy of Nojeem Akinyemi’s fifteenth minute goal.
The hosts replied soon after but Fidelis Ilechukwu’s men held on for a crucial away draw ahead of the return leg at the Agege Stadium in Lagos.
In the Confederation Cup, Nigerian cup winners Akwa United were swallowed by the Hawks from Gambian capital Banjul in a shock 1-2 loss for the Promise Keepers.
Akwa United thoroughly dominated possession but were stunned after just twelve minutes when Muhammed Jallow made the most of poor defending on a free kick to score.
One soon became two on 34 minutes when Lamin Charity spotted goalkeeper Olorunleke Ojo off his goal line to score.
United halved the deficit just after the hour mark through in-form striker Victor Mbaoma but that was all Abdu Maikaba’s men could muster ahead of the second leg at the Independence Stadium on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s other representative, Enyimba were handed a bye from the preliminary stage of the Confederation Cup.
