Ugochukwu Iwuchukwu
Nigeria Women Football League Champions Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt has been drawn in group B of the maiden CAF Women’s Champions League.
The draws were held in Cairo Egypt on Wednesday 29th September 2021.
The tournament is slated for November 5 to 19 in Cairo, Egpyt.
Rivers Angels will face Vihiga Queens – winners of the qualifiers for the CECAFA zone and 2017, 2018, and 2019 Champions of the Women’s Football League in Kenya, Mamelodi Sundowns – winners of COSAFA qualifiers and three-time champions of South Africa, and ASFAR (Morocco) – winners of the UNAF qualifiers.
The ‘Jewel of Rivers’ will face ASFAR of Morocco in their first group game of the tournament.
We’ll qualify from the group- Edwin Okon reacts to the draws
Contrary to what many tags as the group of death, Head coach of Nigeria’s CAF Champions League representative, Rivers Angels, Edwin Okon doesn’t think his side is in a tough group.
The Reigning Nigeria Women Football League Premiership Champions were on Wednesday grouped alongside winners of the UNAF qualifiers, ASFAR Club (MAR), champions of the CECAFA zone, and 3-time champions of the Kenyan Women’s Football League, Vihiga Queens and COSAFA winners, Mamelodi Sundowns (RSA) in November’s inaugural edition of the Champions League.
According to Okon, adequate preparation will prevent his side from being rattled by any kind of opposition on the group stage.
“I want to thank God for qualification first and as for the draws, I don’t think anything is impossible. As far as football is concerned, every group is a good group.
“Our group might as well be a group of death like you know but one has to be prepared to meet any team at whatever level.
“So I don’t see any group as a group of death, it is either you prepare well and do well or you prepare badly and do badly,” Okon added.
The former Super Falcons gaffer also disclosed that his team has one more pre-season tournament to go for after the Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament before heading to Egypt for the Champions League.
“It’s still a work in progress, as you can see we are already in Benin for this tournament because we are trying to see what we have on the ground”, he said.
“We still have one more preseason to attend after here and that will help us work on some lapses ahead of the big one in Egypt.
“The target is to put up a better outing at the continent and the only way we can achieve this is by adequate preparations. We don’t want to be in Egypt to make up numbers but to participate and leave a mark,” summed Okon.
The draw was coordinated by CAF’s Director of Competitions Samson Adamu with the assistance of Nigerian legend, Perpetua Nkwocha and the captain of Wadi Degla, and Egyptian National team captain, Alia Zenouki.
