Final Score: Enyimba 0 – 1 Raja
Casablanca
Raja Casablanca of Morocco head
coach, Juan Carlos Garrido, has stated that his team’s vast understanding of
Enyimba’s style of play played a key
role in their 1-0 win against the People’s Elephant in Wednesday’s CAF
Confederation Cup, semi-final clash in Aba.
The North Africans who dominated the
game for long spells got their goal through Abdelilah Hafidi three minutes
after the break.
Enyimba missed a goal opportunity to
drag them back into contention in the game when Stanley Dimgba missed a penalty
few minutes later.
Usman Abdallah’s men now face a
daunting task in their bid to make it to the final as they will have to go all
out for a win in the reverse fixture on October 24 in Casablanca.
“The reaction of my players was what
gave us the win. We have all our respect for Enyimba for giving us a good
match,” Garrido told reporters after the game.
“We were working and were focused on
the game because we respect the quality of Enyimba. The motivation for our
players was very high before the start of the game because they knew what to
expect from them.
“We knew the strength and weaknesses
of Enyimba before the game and we set our tactics to reflect that. It is just
the first part of the match and the other one comes up in three weeks time.
“We have to play another very
organized match and beef up the team to ensure that we play very well if we
have to qualify for the next round.”
