Nigerian Clubs Gear Up for CAF Champions League, Confederation Cup

‎The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) trio of Rangers International, Rivers United and Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) are braced for this weekend’s qualifying round matches in the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup.
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‎This means their fixtures in the NPFL this weekend has been set aside and a new date will be announced soon.
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‎NPFL champions Rangers and Rivers United will compete in the Champions League while Shooting Stars make a return to Africa for the first time in 27 years.
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‎The Flying Antelopes start their campaign in Africa this Sunday against Sobemap FC from neighbouring Benin Republic at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta. It will be their 11th appearance in the Champions League and their best performance remains 1976, 1978 and 1982 when they reached the semis during those periods.
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‎Rangers head coach, Fidelis Ilechukwu, has put aside their 1-1 in the opening fixture of the NPFL and now wants total focus on the Champions League.
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‎”We must not focus on the game that has passed but work on improving ahead of the next game,” said Ilechukwu.

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‎Last season’s runners-up Rivers United make the trip to the Ivory Coast where they are expected to face San Pedro this Saturday in their first leg of the qualifying round.
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‎The Champions League has not been a competition where the Pride of Port Harcourt have performed at the optimum. Last season they reached the group stage of the competition and finished bottom behind Pyramids, RS Berkane and Power Dynamos, and that was enough to ensure Nigeria produced four clubs for CAF interclub competitions.
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‎Shooting Stars return to the continent after more than two decades and they have a big fixture against CS Sfaxien. The NPFL side are past winners of the Confederation Cup in 1992 when it was still known as CAF Cup before it was merged with the Cup Winners Cup to form the CAF Confederation Cup in 2004.
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‎The Oluyole Warriors brought in experienced coach Salisu Yusuf to help in their outing in Africa and the former Kano Pillars and Enyimba will be keen to guide the Ibadan club past a strong CS Sfaxien side this Saturday at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta.
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‎Nigeria’s other representatives, El-Kanemi Warriors, who now compete in the second tier, will face Guinea Bissau’s Uniao Desportiva Internacional de Bissau (UDIB)