‘Pyramids destablised us’ — Enyimba captain speaks on CAF CC ouster

Austin Oladapo, Enyimba’s captain, has praised the “maturity” of Pyramids FC that halted his team’s CAF Confederation cup dream on Sunday.

The People’s Elephants were outclassed over two legs by the Egyptian club who ran away 5-2 winners on aggregate.

The Fatai Osho-led team hosted the return leg of the tie hoping to upturn the 4-1 deficit incurred in Egypt last weekend. But PFC were alert to Enyimba’s ambition and kept them at bay.

The visitors scored the first goal of the game in the 32nd minute. Ebrahim Adel capitalised on a defensive fluff and sent a lobbing ball beyond a stranded John Noble, Enyimba’s goalkeeper.

The home team responded almost immediately in the 39th minute. Anayo Iwuala’s curling strike evaded the determined leap of Ahmed El Shenawy, PFC goalkeeper, and nestled in the top corner.

However, the Nigerian club ran out of firepower as the game finished 1-1.

Speaking with TheCable after the encounter, Oladapo said the Egyptian side destabilised his team.

“We played against a very mature side so it was going to be very difficult to overturn that result,” he said.

“Though we had a strong mindset to do that, unfortunately, we conceded first and that changed the whole narrative of everything.

“They were able to contain us in the first 35 minutes until they scored their first goal and it destabilised our team. The way they played, pass the ball and defend shows a lot of maturity.

“All we wanted were goals. Score all the three and probably get four we can get it, that was all we needed to do. But it’s so unfortunate we couldn’t get that done. That’s football, sometimes things turn out these ways and your hands are tied and you can’t do anything.”

He said the club must move on from the disappointment and focus on the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

“We have everything it takes to get the league. We just have to put this loss behind us and focus all our attention on the league and see how it goes. We have to win all our outstanding matches. We have to make our fans happy and hopefully get the league,” he added.