Rivers United will be Nigeria’s last team standing in the 2021-22 Caf Champions League, according to Goal readers.
Having finished second in last season’s Nigeria Professional Football League season, the Pride of Rivers will be competing in the tournament next term.
Also taking part in the Champions League is Akwa United. Kennedy Boboye’s booked a ticket following their Nigeria top-flight triumph.
As both teams continue their preparations for the demanding task ahead, we asked our readers about the Nigerian team that will go further in the Caf Champions League this season.
In a poll conducted on the Goal Africa Twitter handle, 51.6 percent of voters claim Stanley Eguma’s Rivers United will be Nigeria’s last team standing.
The Port Harcourt-based team qualified for the competition for the first time having finished as runners-up in the 2016 edition of the Nigerian top-flight.
After seeing off Mali’s AS Bamako in the preliminary round, they kissed the competition goodbye in the first round following a 4-3 aggregate defeat to Sudanese giants Al Merrikh.
For Akwa United, they are priced at 48.4 percent, meaning that less is expected from them.
Well, this is not surprising because they are making their debut appearance in the biggest club football tourney in Africa.
Twice they have featured in the Caf Confederation Cup, and on those occasions, they failed to get past the first round.
Regardless, coach Boboye remains very positive that his team will prove the doubters wrong.
“We have moved on from celebrating our NPFL triumph and our immediate mission is the Caf Champions League,” Boboye told Goal.
“All hands are on deck to ensure we scale CR Belouizdad hurdles because they are currently Algerian Ligue 1 champions.
“I am not shocked that many don’t believe in us to do well in the competition. The same thing happened in the league and we let them swallow their words.
“It is not an easy feat to emerge as champions in Nigeria and not minding what people think about us, we are unruffled and our target is to make the country very proud.”
The first-leg fixtures of the Caf Champions League preliminary qualifiers will take place between September 10-12 while the reverse fixtures are scheduled for September 17-19.
