Federation Cup: How I plotted Rivers Utd’s fall -Deutsch

Abia Warriors head coach, Emmanuel Deutsch has revealed that his prior knowledge of the philosophy and tactics of Rivers United technical crew aided his team’s 1-0 win in Lagos in the Group C Federation Cup clash on Friday.

Deutsch who boasted that Rivers United were yet to beat Abia Warriors since he took charge of the team at the beginning of the season said he was pained that his team were still eliminated despite winning two games from three matches.

He said he thought so much about the tactics that Stanley Eguma’s men will adopt and that after they were able to survive the Pride of Rivers’ heat in the first half he told his players to go full throttle in the second half and they were rewarded with a goal through ShadrackAsiegbu in the 75th minute.

“I have never lost to Rivers United while being coach of Abia Warriors. I have the tactics of the club and after studying them in the first half I told my players what to do and we got the desired win,” Deutsch stated.

“It was unfortunate that our two wins could not take us to the next round. The big loss to Kwara United was the irony of it all and it was the reason we have been eliminated at this stage. We deserve to qualify had we had a decent result against Kwara United.

“It is just the way football is. We were able to beat Kano Pillars and Rivers United but the same team that we lost 5-1 to, were unable to get a result against Kano Pillars.”

Abia Warriors and Rivers United were eliminated from Group C while Kwara United and Kano Pillars picked
the two available tickets from the group. Three teams ended the group stage with six points but they were separated by goals difference.