Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) champions Rangers International on Friday battled out a 1-1 draw with Comoros Islands champions US Zilimadjou in their CAF Champions League preliminary round second leg clash at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, www.aclsports.com reports.
The Flying Antelopes went into the game with a 1-0 advantage from the first leg game also decided at the same venue on Sunday and it was that advantage that counted in the end after they were cancelled out in the second leg.
Rangers head coach Fidelis Ilechukwu made one change to his starting team, dropping captain Chinemerem Ugwueze to the bench to accommodate Kazeem Ogunleye. The visitors meanwhile retained the same starting eleven for the uphill task of overturning Rangers’ advantage.
Rangers dominated the opening half, quite as expected but failed to fashion out good scoring opportunities with Zilimadjou goalkeeper Youssouf Djawadi dealing with long range attempts from free kick.
Escalated Second half
Both teams went into the second half knowing they were still in the game. Rangers continued on the front foot before Ilechukwu replaced Ogunleye with Ekeson Okorie and Bashir Usman replacing Chiedozie Okorie both on the hour mark.
The changes brought a different direction to Rangers’ play and it was Ekeson whose darting run into the box, going past a forest of legs, led to a penalty decision by the centre referee Moses Forkpah from Liberia in the 77th minute.
The visitors however stunned their hosts four minutes from time when striker Youssouf Mohammed headed home substitute Ibrahim Msaidie’s cross to set up a nervy finale to the game.
Rangers eventually held on for the aggregate win but their performance over both legs will leave more question marks in the minds of their fans as to their capability to qualify for the group stage of the CAF Champions League.
Rangers will most likely face Angolan side Segrada Esperança in the next round for a place in the group stage of the Champions League.
