The play-off draws of the 2020/2021 Total CAF Confederation Cup (TotalCAFCC) conducted in Cairo on Friday has pitted Nigerian sides Enyimba and Rivers United as likely opponents.
Enyimba failed to overturn a 0-3 first leg deficit against Al Merrikh in the Champions League, losing 2-4 on aggregate to the Sudanese side after a 2-1 win in Aba on Wednesday.
The result meant that Enyimba enter instead into the Confederation Cup draws where they were the first team out of the pot. The People’s Elephant were handed a tie against winners of the contentious clash between Rivers United and Bloemfontein Celtic.
United and Celtic were due to meet in the second leg clash in Port Harcourt on Wednesday but the South Africans were not granted a requested waiver since flights from the country have been prohibited into entering Nigeria due to a new strain of Covid-19 discovered there.
Rivers United won the first leg clash 0-2 in Bloemfontein and will hope to sail through for a meeting against Enyimba whom they had a protracted battle with following the Points Per Game (PPG) table phenomenon at the end of last season.
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This is only the second time two Nigerian teams will meet at this stage of the competition. In 2007, Kwara United defeated Nasarawa United (who had dropped down from the Champions League) 2-1 on aggregate to reach the group stage of the competition.
The last time two teams from the same country met at this stage of the Confederation Cup was in 2017 when FUS Rabat of Morocco defeated Maghreb de Fes 3-2 on aggregate before joining Rivers United in Group A.
The first leg match of the contest will hold on Sunday, February 14, 2021 at the Enyimba International Stadium, Aba while the second leg will hold a week later either in Bloemfontein or Port Harcourt.
