Technical Adviser of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu, Coach, Salisu Yusuf has declared that it is not proper to write off the team in the CAF Confederation Cup, as he believes they can still qualify for the knock-out stage, despite losing their first two matches of their group.
After losing 3-1 at home against Pyramids FC of Egypt, The Flying Antelopes fell 4-2 away to yet another Egyptian club, Al-Masry on Sunday but, while many Nigerians have written them off as no hopers, Salisu insists the continental race is not yet over for the Coal City side.
He is instead picking positives from a late rally, which saw Rangers score two goals in the last ten minutes of Sunday’s match, as the Antelopes staged a late fight back, but it was not good enough to pull the chestnut out of the fire.
The 2016 Nigerian champions and current FA Cup holders looked dead and buried in Port Said after Al-Masry raced to a 4-0 lead, but Salisu was delighted seeing his side fight back, as Eziekwe Chinonso scored to make it 4-1 four minutes from time, before the Egyptians scored an own goal to give the visitors some respectability in the day’s result.
Al-Masry’s Nigerian star, Austin Amutu scored his third goal of the competition for the club and the game’s first in the fifth minute after he was set up by Muftah Taktak, after which Ahmed Yasser netted the second goal in the 27th-minute.
Rangers now face an uphill task in their bid to make it to the knock-out stage, as they sit bottom in the group without a point in two games, Salisu stressed: “You can’t write us off just like that. It’s never over until it’s over.”
