Visiting and relegation-threatened Akwa United Football Club of Uyo on Sunday drew 1-1 with title-chasing Rangers International FC of Enugu in a 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League Match Day 28 fixture.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports the match began with the visitors dictating the pace from the first blast of the referee’s whistle.
Rangers, who are the competition’s defending champions and are still in the running to retain the title, responded as expected, even as they lacked the firepower to sustain the tempo.
With the visitors seizing the opportunity, Osoba Kabir’s shot from outside the penalty box in the 18th minute beat goalkeeper Jacob Abdulahi to give them the opening goal.
The goal unsettled the hosts, but all attempts by the Flying Antelopes to equalise in the first half failed to yield good results.
However, Rangers equalised in the 48th minute of play through a penalty kick taken by the team’s match day captain, Saviour Isaac, following a hand ball offence.
From then on, the two teams stood toe-to-toe as they laboured with no goals to show for it.
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In a post-match interview, the Head Coach of Rangers, Fidelis Ilechukwu, blamed his players for underrating their opponents.
Ilechukwu said: “Maybe because of the position of Akwa United in the league, my players thought it was going to be easy.
“But now they have seen the result.
“But this is not the result we expected today (Sunday).”
On his part, Kennedy Boboye, the Head Coach of Akwa United, said his players performed according to instructions.
“We want to leave the relegation zone and we will keep improving with every match,” Boboye said.
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