Naija Football Extra

  Plateau United will next weekend host USM Algeria at the Agege Stadium in the first leg of the final round of CAF Confederation Cup. The Jos side played against Etoile Du Sahel in Kano, but after some complaints from the away team for the CAF Confederation Cup game, the football governing body in Africa advised that Plateau United should choose between Uyo or Lagos. The NPFL defending champions have chosen the Agege Stadium in Lagos for the game that will be played April 7th. MFM will host Malian side, Djoliba the next day at the Agege Stadium.

Akwa United young sensation,  Aniekeme Asuquo has emerged Dana Air/ Akwa United best player for the month of February. Aniekeme scooped the Award after he was voted Man-of-the-Match in three of Akwa United's  matches in the period under review. The Dana Air/Akwa United player of the month Award was presented to the player with a cash prize of One Hundred Thousand Naira (100,000.00) only before kickoff of their rescheduled Matchday 10 fixture against Heartland FC on Wednesday in Uyo. Head of Media and Communications of Dana Air Mr. Ezenwa made the presentation on behalf of  Airline and said, the initiative is to encourage and motivate players of Akwa United to perform optimally in all competitions. Speaking with the Media Department of the club after receiving the Award, the Under-20 invitee said, " First I want to give thanks to God Almighty for his love and mercies, secondly to my Mother who has been my source of inspiration and thirdly to my teammates for ...

Enyimba's participation in the 2018 CAF Confederation Cup will continue with a 2nd 1/16th Round tie against South Africa side Bidvest Wits.   In the draw conducted in Cairo on Wednesday, the two-time African champions were drawn against the Clever Boys, who last season were crowned PSL champions for the first time in their history.   That league triumph earned the modest Johannesburg side a place in the CAF Champions League this term. They were, however, eliminated in the final Play-off round by Angolan side Primeiro de Agosto, and so entered the Confederation Cup at the 2nd 1/16th Round.   Wits play under the tutelage of experienced 53-year-old, Gavin Hunt. The hugely successful manager won three league titles with Supersport United, and pulled off a miracle last season in beating away the challenge of much-fancied Mamelodi Sundowns for the league crown.   The first leg meeting with Enyimba will come up on the weekend of  6-8 April , at t...

Akwa United striker, Musa Newman has revealed that they are not afraid of their Sudanese opponents in the CAF Confederation Cup game. Akwa United will takenon Sundanese side, ElHilal in the final round of the competition.  Musa noted that they are a good side, but can be beaten on a good day. "Yes we are not afraid of the Sudanese side. They are a good side, but I'm optimistic that with our form this season, we can triumph and get into the League stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.  "It is not as if I don't reckon with the Sudanese side, but I'm so sure of our team this season and what they can do under the right atmosphere. "We are looking forward to the game so we can give our best" Musa said. Akwa United will travel to Sudan for the first leg in the first weekend of April before the second leg in Uyo in the weekend of April17- 18. 

Four Nigerian clubs this evening got their opponents ‎for the last round of matches for the CAF Confederation Cup.  Sundaes side,   El Hilal of Sudan will square up against Akwa United of Nigeria,while Plateau United will face  USM Algier from Algeria. South Africa side, Bidvest Wits will engage Enyimba as MFM welcomes Malian side,  ‎Djoliba of Mali.  The first leg matches will be played in the weekend of April 6-8.

It was a come-from-behind victory for former Nigeria league champions, Rangers International F.C in a practice match against a youthful and enterprising Enugu All-Stars team complete with former FIFA World cup star, Okechukwu Uchebo and former youth international, Uche Nwofor in a 3-2 win, Saturday at the main bowl of Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium. The All-Stars team was quick off the block racing to a two goals lead inside the first seventeen minutes of the exciting match, put together to keep the ‘Flying Antelopes’ in shape as their NPFL Match Day 13 fixture was re-scheduled, with former V.V.V Venlo of Holland’ attacking sensation, Uche Nwofor, showed class with a clinical finish off an Uchebo assist on 7 minutes. Chidi Edeh, who made fame and fortune in the Indian top league drilled in the second goal on 17 minutes after evading a sea of tackling legs to fire past Femi Thomas. Seven time Nigerian league champions, instead of been shocked and bemused, took the game to th...

Rangers may finally secure the services of Chisom Egbuchulam as talks are on for the player to ‎resume training with the Enugu based side. Chisom played a pivotal role two season's  ago ‎when Rangers won the Nigeria Professional Football League title after 32 years. But he opted to move to Sweden where he joined BK Hacken.  He could not tie down a permanent role with the team and Hecken allowed him to go at the end of the season. Chisom returned to Nigeria last December and decided not to play ‎for any Nigerian clubside.  The former Nigerian footballer of the year may however change his mind and rejoin Rangers at the start of the second round of the season.  "We are still looking at the options available for us to ‎have him back.  "Discussions are on going and before the start of the second round, we will know whether he will join us or not," a top source close to the Enugu based side revealed.  If Chisom gets to join Rangers at the sta...

Kano Pillars forward Junior Lokosa and Heartland head coach Ramson Madu have been named the NPFL Player and Manager for February respectively by the League Bloggers Awards (LBA). Lokosa and Madu distinguished themselves in the month under review to come out tops in both categories of the award. Lokosa saw off challenges from Kwara United striker Stephen Alfred, Wikki Tourists defender Isaac Giwa and Enugu Rangers goalkeeper Femi Thomas to emerge the top performer among players for the month of February. The Kano Pillars forward scored three goals in four games as his club finished unbeaten in February. He also showed he can hold his own in big games, scoring against MFM FC, Enyimba and Rangers. Lokosa is currently the top scorer of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). Lokosa has now won the LBA back-to-back after claiming the player's prize in January - the first of this NPFL season. Madu has had quite a topsy-turvy spell overall as Heartland manager but February r...

Experienced CAF Club contenders Al Ittihad of Libya will fly directly from Tripoli to Uyo today courtesy of a private jet that has been put at the disposal of the club by shareholders from the oil rich country of Libya. An advance party led by Mr. Abushawashi Snoussi that arrived Lagos last Tuesday aboard Royal Air Maroc and departed for Uyo same day via Dana Air, confirmed that the team was going to fly into Uyo with a chartered flight. “The initial problem is that we had applied to land in Uyo, but we were told that with Uyo yet to be granted international status, we will be permitted to land in Port Harcourt and drive down.  But plans are afoot to make us land in Uyo, since teams like Algeria and South Africa have had to land there before from Algiers and Jo’Burg respectively” Mr. Snoussi said. The Libyan was also spotted in the five star Le Meridien Hotel and Golf resort where he had made reservations for his team, after deciding that all the other hotels in town ...

A fifth minute strike by diminutive winger, Bright Silas off an instinctive free kick by former Nigeria senior international, Felix Ogbuke, ensured Rangers International went home with the bragging rights as rampaging, ‘Peoples Elephant’ failed to find a way past the backline of the ‘Flying Antelopes’ in a match day 12 NPFL encounter, Sunday evening. The former Plateau United winger was left unmarked as Ogbuke got set to take the free kick a few meters from the edge of the box and he made no mistake as he connected home to the bewilderment of the visitor’s backline in the ‘Oriental Derby’ that was watched by a large crowd of fans inside Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium, Enugu. Enyimba got the game going after referee Promise Amadi signalled for the start of hostilities with Stanley Dimgba and Chinonso Okonkwo probing the rear of the host with little success. A build up from the middle of the pack started by Ugonna Anyora quickly found Tope Olusesi whose surging run was s...

Super Eagles Manager Gernot Rohr has invited 28 players for the friendly matches against Poland and Serbia. Captain Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Ikechukwu Ezenwa are part of the players that will prosecute the two games.  New boy Francis Uzoho and Daniel AkpeyI will join Ezenwa in the goalkeeping department. Former junior international Kenneth Omeruo is back among the defenders, as Joe Obi among the midfielders, while Eagles’ B stalwarts, defender Stephen Eze and forward Gabriel Okechukwu, are also handed opportunities. Russia –based Brian Idowu, who scored against Argentina on his debut in a friendly in Krasnodar in November last year, and Al Ahly of Egypt’s attacker were also invited. Three –time African champions Nigeria will trade tackles with the Bialo-Czerwoni (White and Red) or Eagles, as the Senior National Team of Poland is known, at the 43,000 –capacity Stadium Wroclaw on Friday, 23 rd  March 2018. The Super Eagles will take to the pitch...