TotalCAFCC: Rivers United, Kano Pillars in tricky away ties

Nigeria’s representatives in the 2020/2021 Total CAF Confederation Cup (TotalCAFCC) Rivers United and Kano Pillars FC will begin their campaign on Saturday with some tricky ties to negotiate, reports www.aclsports.com

Rivers United will face a well-prepared Futuro Kings of Equatorial Guinea in their preliminary round first leg clash in Mongomo while Kano Pillars are in Dakar, Senegal to face ASC Diaraf.

Both sides travel aboard chartered flights on Friday morning to their destinations. Rivers United flew for just under an hour to Equatorial Guinea from Port Harcourt while Kano Pillars flew about three and half hours from Kano to Dakar.

In preparation for this, Rivers United won the Gov Wike pre-season tournament in Port Harcourt earlier this month and also reached the semi-final of the Gov Dapo Abiodun tournament before pulling out on Sunday.

We are live in Mongomo pic.twitter.com/GxRLylDb0V
— Rivers United FC (@RiversUnitedFC) November 27, 2020

Rivers United head coach Stanley Eguma told www.aclsports.com his side will do their best to win in Mongomo.

“No match is an easy match. We do not know them. Yeah we know many teams in Equatorial Guinea but this team is a new team as I was made to understand. We do not know them but we’re not taking things for granted.

“Even though they’re not a known name in African football, we are not taking them for granted and will do everything possible to see that we get a good result,” said Eguma to www.aclsports.com

The game between United and Futuro Kings who prepared for this game in Cameroon, in a six-game tour of the Central African nation will kick-off at 3:30pm at the Estadio de Mongomo on Saturday afternoon.

@pillarsfc players during a light shake up this evening at the Stade Demba Diop, Dakar ahead of our @CAF_Online confederation cup preliminary first leg clash with ASC Jaraaf. The match will be played at 6:00pm Nigerian time.#SaiMasuGida https://t.co/x8ckZWDyUE pic.twitter.com/gVAgqoljEN
— Kano Pillars FC Official (@pillarsfc) November 27, 2020

For Kano Pillars, they begin another attempt at an appreciable impact on the continent after the colossal failure of last season. They face Senegalese league second placed side ASC Diaraf on Saturday at 6:00pm.

The Kano State government sponsored side travelled aboard an Ethiopian Airways Chartered flight to Dakar on Friday morning and will be relying on the likes of Rabiu Ali, Nyima Nwagua, Aniekeme Okon Asuquo to get the job done for them.

The game will take place at the Stade Demba Diop in Senegal with the return leg billed for the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna next Saturday.

Pillars will hope to scale the first hurdle this time around having lost to Ghana’s Asante Kotoko in the preliminary round of the CAF Champions League last season.