Rivers United 0-2 Young Africans: Pride of Rivers on brink of elimination after home loss

By Wale Mustapha

Rivers United’s quest of reaching this year’s CAF Confederation Cup semi final has suffered a huge blow as the Nigerian champions bowed 2-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinal encounter with Young Africans in Uyo on Sunday.

The Pride of Rivers went into the match with high hopes after ending second in the group stage and expected to have an easy ride over the men from Dar es Sallam but things didn’t go as planned as the visitors stole the day.

Yanga as the Tanzanite club are also called went close to score twice in the early moments of the opening half but were denied by incredible saves of goalkeeper Victor Sochima.

As the game wears on and heading towards the closing stages, Yanga took the lead through perfect finish by Fiston Mayele who chipped over Sochima after a through pass from his captain, Bakari.

Rivers made a late surge to find an equalizer with quarter of an hour to go but Yanga profited from a swift counter attack to earn the second as Mayele was at the end of the brilliant run to poke home with another pass from Bakari.

The rest of the minutes was more of a catch up for Rivers in late attempts to reduce the deficit but met a solid Yanga defense that protected the two-goal lead heading to the second leg in Tanzania.

It is now a huge mountain to climb for Rivers United as they will attempt to overturn the two-goal deficit when both sides meet again in Tanzania next Sunday.