Fatai Osho praised Enyimba’s resilience in their 1-0 win against Orlando Pirates, saying his team ‘had to work extra hard’.
The two-time African kings went into the last Group A game in dire need of a victory to reach the Caf Confederation Cup quarter-finalS.
The Peoples’ Elephants dominated ball possession; however, their greatest undoing was missing several goalscoring opportunities – although goalkeeper Wayne Sandilands put up a good show in goal.
With the game looking destined to end in a 0-0 draw, Cyril Olisema’s last-gasp effort from Anayo Iwuala’s assist sent the Nigerians through.
Osho was particularly impressed with the battling qualities displayed by his side and hopes they can maintain those characteristics in the knockout phase.
“We are so happy about the result. It was not easy looking at the quality of Orlando Pirates. They did very well, and we had to work extra hard to get that result,” he told the media during the post-match conference.
“I will give a lot of commendation to the players for their resilience that they could get it done. So, we want to celebrate this moment and we will start looking at the knockout stage.”
The former Remo Stars coach – who is hoping to surpass his quarter-final mark - is not oblivious of Enyimba’s profligacy in front of goal.
“It has been like that for some time, but we have really tried to get it better,” he continued.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t see the improvement today required. But, going forward I can assure you that things will get better.
“Last year, I was coach when we got to the quarter-finals. In anything you do, you try to get better.
“If we reached the quarter-finals last year, then we should do better this year. That is the most important thing.”
On why he threw Samad Kadiri and Tosin Omoyele into the fray at the start of the second half, Osho added: “We noticed some sort of tiredness in the Pirates defense, so we needed to bring in people with force and quickness.”
Despite losing at the Enyimba International Stadium, Josef Zinnbauer’s men are through to the last eight, albeit, as Group A runners-up as El Setif and Al Ahly Benghazi crashed out.
