By Adeboye Amosu: MFM FC head coach Fidelis Ilechukwu admits his team now face a tough battle to progress further in the CAF Champions League due to the non-availability of some of his key players owing to registration irregularities, reports Completesportsnigeria.com.
The Lagos club secured a hard fought 1-0 win against AS Real de Bamako of Mali in the second leg of their preliminary round fixture at the newly refurbished Agege Stadium on Wednesday to progress on 2-1 aggregate and will face Algeria’s Moloudia Club D’Alger in the next stage of the competition.
The Olukoya Boys struggled for the better parts of the game which was dominated by the Malians.
Reliable forwards Sikiru Olatunbosun, Adebayo Waheed and new signing Jesse Akila all failed to feature against the Malians as they were not duly registered for the competition but all that will change if the Olukoya Boys proceed to group stages where there will be another opportunity to register new players.
Ilechukwu admitted after the game that his team struggled to create chances due to the unavailability of the key men.
“It was a difficult game for us as the Malians made difficult for us from start to finish. Our defence did well by stopping their strikers from scoring but our strikers struggled,” Ilechukwu told CSN after the game.
“Without Sikiru, Waheed and Akila, it was difficult for us to do anything meaningful upfront. We were just lucky we had a good defence which helped us in the game.
“With what we saw from our strikers today (Wednesday), it will be an uphill task to proceed into the next stage into next game.
“It is my responsibility to make sure things work out well for the team and I will do my best to achieve that.
Ilechukwu: MFM Face Tough CAFCL Experience Without Olatunbosun, Others
