Enyimba Football Club have won the 2022/23 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title, extending their record as the most successful club in the Nigerian league.
The team, tutored by Nigerian ex-International Finidi George, won their ninth league title after securing 1-1 draw against Rivers United in the final match day of the Super 6 Championship Playoffs.
Thanks to a superior goal difference, the Peoples’ Elephant who were on the same points (8) with Rivers United prior to Sunday’s fixture, only needed a draw to lift the league title of the abridged NPFL season since they last won the title incidentally during the 2019 abridged campaign.
With this win, the two-time CAF Champions League winners will once again feature in the CAF top tier tournament.
In the 36th minute of the game, Enyimba took the lead six minutes before the halftime break. But Nyima Nwangwa equalised for the now past champions three minutes after the break and that was enough for them to be crowned as the new Nigerian champions.
It was also the return of Enyimba to the continent since they last qualified for a CAF Interclub competition for the first since the 2020/21 season. The two-time CAF Champions League winners will once again feature in the CAF top tier tournament and will surely seek to make a real mark on the continent since 2004.
Meanwhile, the outcome was detrimental to Rivers United as the ‘Pride of Rivers’ finished third on the table and dropped to the Confederation Cup spot, only losing the Champions League ticket to Remo Stars due to inferior goal difference.
Rivers United will make a familiar return to the competition in which they reached the quarterfinals this season.
Subsequently, Remo Stars secured a second consecutive return to continental football following their first appearance in the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup in the just concluded season.
The Sky Blue Stars defeated Bendel Insurance 1-0 on Sunday afternoon to qualify for the CAF Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. Qudus Akanni scored the only goal of the encounter which proved to be essential to help Remo Stars finish ahead of Rivers United.
The top three clubs finished the championship playoffs on the same points (9) and were only separated by goal difference between all of them. Champions Enyimba had four goals difference, three goals difference for Remo Stars and two for Rivers United.
Also on the last day of the playoffs, Sunshine Stars recorded their first win of the Championship. The Owena Whales defeated Lobi Stars 3-1 to surprisingly finish fourth place on the table accumulating five points from five games.
Twenty three minutes into the match, Stephen Chukwude opened the scoring for Sunshine Stars through a header from a free kick. Then, six minutes before the break, Michael Olulasi doubled the lead for Sunshine as they went into the break with a comfortable two-goal lead.
In the 67th minute, Elijah Ani halved the deficit for Lobi Stars with a powerful shot several metres away from the 18-yards box. It was the Makurdi-based club’s first and only goal throughout the playoffs.
Meanwhile, in the closing minutes of the game, Sunshine Stars’ captain Vincent Temitope scored to seal the win for the Owena Whales.
With the win, Sunshine Stars who were underdogs coming into the playoffs managed to finish above Bendel Insurance whom many tagged the “biggest disappointment” of the championship – they only managed to garnered three points and Lobi Stars who only managed to accumulate just two points from five matches to finish bottom of the table.
Both Bendel Insurance, who came into the playoffs with an 18 matches unbeaten run and Lobi Stars are the only teams that failed to win a game in the tournament that was hosted at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan, Lagos state.
