Warri Wolves Crashes out of Confed Cup

 Warri Wolves’ continental campaign effectively ended yesterday as it failed to surmount the obstacle posed by Tunisian side, CA Bizertin in the second leg of their Second Round CAF Confederation Cup clash. Bizertin defeated Wolves 2-1 to progress to the next round.

The first leg had ended goalless at the Warri City Stadium.
Signs of what was in store for the Nigerian representative began to manifest with the sending off of Ikechukwu ThankGod in the 42nd minute.

The hero of the day for the host team was Edem Rjaibi who scored twice in the first half to secure the advantage for the Tunisians.
Rjaibi opened scoring in the 6th minute before Kola Anubi equalised in the 26th minute to give Wolves hope.
But the sacking of ThankGod disrupted Coach Frank Aigbogun’s game plan for Wolves.

Disaster however struck Wolves who were already looking forward to the next round with the away goal advantage, when they succumbed to incessant pressure, allowing Rjaibi to find the net again, and give the hosts the lead with seconds to close the first stanza. CA Bizertin qualified 2-1 on aggregate.

Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria’s other team in the CAF Confederation Cup, Bayelsa United qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup playoffs after they beat How Mine of Zimbabwe 2-0 to advance 3-2 on aggregate.
Bayelsa, who reached the semi-finals of the same competition in 2009, will know their opponents from the CAF Champions League in the next round of the competition after today’s draw by CAF.

The overall winners of this round will qualify for the mini-league stage of Africa’s second-tier club competition.
The Nigerian club took the lead against a very defensive How Mine after 57 minutes through Jafar Buhari.

In a game they struggled to create many scoring chances, Bayelsa finally doubled their lead two minutes from time through midfielder Azubuike Okechukwu.

The restart of the second half was delayed by about five minutes following an incident where some fans challenged the visitors for allegedly coming down with Juju (fetish substance).