CAF Champions League: Rangers qualifies for next round

Enugu players and Vital O's mingle before start of game on Sunday

Rangers International of Enugu, one of Nigeria’s representatives in the CAF Champions League has qualified for the next stage of the continental club championship.

Rangers picked the ticket for the next round after beating its Burundian counterpart Vital O’ 2-0 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu on Sunday. With the result, Rangers finished on 2-0 aggregate after the first leg ended in a goalless draw in Bujumbura a fortnight ago.

Rangers came into the game meaning business and was quickly rewarded by a goal from the penalty spot by Uche Oguchi after one of its rampaging attackers was felled by the visiting team.

Efe Yarehe mades it two in the 16^th minute via a well-taken free kick. Vital O’ tried fruitlessly for a comeback but could not. It even got a penalty in the final minutes of the game but Steve Nzigamassado lost the spot kick.

Rangers will now face Recreativo Libolo of Angola in the next stage of the competition. Also, the players have earned themselves a N250,000 prize money promised them by the club’s board chairman, Festus Onu.

Meanwhile, Kano Pillars, NPFL defending champions and Nigeria’s second representative in the championship fell 3-0 to Congolese team AC Leopards in Congo to crash out of the championship.

The team which had been in Congo since Friday lost to the hosts and failed to qualify for the next stage after tying with Leopards 4-4 after its stellar performance in the first leg at the Sani Abacha Stadium in which it triumphed 4-1 over the CAF Confederations Cup defending champions.
But Pillars lost on away goals rule after Leopards picked a goal in Kano and it failed to do likewise in Congo.