Enyimba F.C. suffered a 1-0 defeat against Wydad Casablanca in the first leg of their quarterfinal match in the African Football League.
The only goal of the encounter came from a first-half penalty, which was conceded by Ojo Olorunleke at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo in Akwa Ibom State on Sunday evening.
After the match, Coach Finidi George said that his team didn’t deserve to lose, although he acknowledged they struggled to create clear scoring chances.
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“For you to win games, you have to score-you take your chances,” George revealed in the post-match interview. “That didn’t happen for us today, I think. The next couple of days, [we] have another game against the same team, so we [will] try and make sure we rectify that as quickly as possible.
Wydad immediately took control of the match, earning a free kick straight from the kickoff as Chidiebere Nnachi fouled Soufyan Ahannach.
Despite Wydad’s early attempts to test the Enyimba defence, led by Alalibo Somiari and Chikamuso Okechukwu, the Enyimba team held their ground by thwarting these efforts.
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Yahya Jabrane came close to heading the visitors into the lead in the eighth minute, but his attempt narrowly missed the target. Enyimba gradually began to find their footing in the match, with Mbaoma Chijioke attempting a long-range shot from outside the box in the 11th minute.
In the 15th minute, Amine Aboulfath received the first yellow card of the match for a foul on Daniel Daga. The back-and-forth action continued until the 35th minute when Ojo Olorunleke fouled Ayoub El Amloud, who was played through by a lofted pass from Hamdou El Houni.
The Enyimba goalkeeper was slightly late and collided with the Moroccan forward. Referee Mahamat didn’t hesitate to award a free kick and show Olorunleke a yellow card. Jabrane stepped up to take the kick and successfully scored, giving Wydad the lead.
At the start of the second half, Coach George made a substitution, bringing on Ikenna Cooper for Chidiebere Nnachi. Enyimba continued their efforts to equalise and often resorted to long-range shots. In the 53rd minute, Jabrane committed a professional foul as Mbaoma Chijioke broke through the centre. The referee showed him a yellow card.
Substitute Izuogu Chibueze had a clear scoring opportunity in the 76th minute, but unfortunately, he sent his shot over the crossbar. The Moroccan team demonstrated clever play, frequently disrupting Enyimba’s rhythm and capitalising on injuries to impede Enyimba’s chances of creating scoring opportunities.
In the dying moments of the match, Somiare received a red card after a VAR review of a foul on Mountassir Lahtimi. Somiare executed a last-man tackle on Mountassir Lahtimi after Chinedu Chilekwu lost possession. Initially shown a yellow card, referee Alhadi Allaou Mahamat upgraded it to a red card following the VAR review.
“There are no two ways about it. Definitely, if it is possible for us to lose here, I guess it is possible for us to win in Casablanca. So it is the time to get together as a team and put our heads together to see how we can overturn the result in Morocco.
“There is nothing much; that’s football. If they can do it here, we can do it over there,” Captain Ekwutoziam Eze added.
