CAF Confederation Cup: Enyimba lost the ticket in Aba–Dauda

Enyimba goalkeeper, Fatau Dauda has praised the fighting spirit of his teammates who fought Raja Casablanca of Morocco to a standstill before bowing out of the CAF Confederation Cup in the semi final 3-1 on aggregate.

Dauda stressed that they lost the ticket in Aba when they allowed Raja who were not really at their best to beat them 1-0 and that despite their attempt to stage a comeback in the return leg in Casablanca on Wednesday the support the Moroccans had from their fans made it impossible for their effort to yield the necessary result.

The Ghanaian goalkeeper thumbed up the valiant display of his teammates but rued the mistakes they made during the game that culminated in the goals recorded by their hosts.

“We started this competition slowly and people even started writing us off but we were able to reach where we got to today (Wednesday),” Dauda said.

“I will say we lost the game at home when they came to beat us in Aba. It is not that they were extraordinary in both legs but football is like that and we can’t predict its outcome. We have all learned something from that. I am proud of my teammates.

“Today I was on the bench and I saw the game. This is one of our best games this season. We were unlucky. Football is like that when you make mistakes you get punished. In football, it happens. Like I said earlier on, we live to learn and we have learned some lessons from it.

“It was a very nice competition and we thank God that we didn’t witness any major injury and we finished the game nicely. Although we lost, we were not disgraced. We did our best but our best was not enough.

Dauda charged their fans back home to continue to support them unlike what they did in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-final tie when they turned against them as soon as Raja scored the only goal of the match.

He said he was amazed at the level of support Raja fans showed to their team when they refused to stop supporting them throughout the duration of the game even when they were yet to hit their strides.

Read Also: Raja bundle Enyimba out of CAF Confederation Cup

“I heard what the fans did in Aba when we played them during the first leg and they were leading us 1-0. The action was very unfortunate. We saw it today how Raja fans supported them team from the beginning to the end. Fans play a major role in every team. I am very sure our fans we learn from this that in football you can never give up until the end of the game.”