Sunshine confident of ACL home win
Sunshine striker Akombo against Club Africain last year
Sunshine dare Esperance
Nigeria’s Sunshine Stars have said they are confident of victory
over champions Esperance in a CAF Champions League Group A tie Sunday.
The Nigerian club are making only their debut in Africa’s foremost club competition and open their group phase campaign against the defending champions from Tunisia in Ijebu-Ode Sunday afternoon.
Last year, they reached the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup, where they battled other North African clubs like Al Ittihad (Libya), JS Kabylie (Algeria) and Club Africain (Tunisia).
“We are aware that Esperance are a great team, but we will do our best to see that we come out victorious in this game,” said coach Gbenga Ogunbote. “We are going for nothing but victory.”
He added: “We wish to take this campaign one step at a time. When we started the competition, our aim was to get to group stage, now that we are in group stage, our next target is to qualify from the group after which we will set the another target.”
And Ogunbote further told MTNFootball.com that their experience against North African opposition last year will now stand them in good stead against the famous ‘Blood and Gold’ from Tunis.
“I don’t have much information about Esperance, but we have an idea about the style of play of North African teams having played some of them last year. I know how North Africa teams play and so we will work with that,” said Ogunbote.
The Akure club have signed three new players for the group phase of the Champions League including Sunday Emmanuel and Cletus Itodo, who were previously with the team before they moved to other clubs this season.
The Nigerian club are making only their debut in Africa’s foremost club competition and open their group phase campaign against the defending champions from Tunisia in Ijebu-Ode Sunday afternoon.
Last year, they reached the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup, where they battled other North African clubs like Al Ittihad (Libya), JS Kabylie (Algeria) and Club Africain (Tunisia).
“We are aware that Esperance are a great team, but we will do our best to see that we come out victorious in this game,” said coach Gbenga Ogunbote. “We are going for nothing but victory.”
He added: “We wish to take this campaign one step at a time. When we started the competition, our aim was to get to group stage, now that we are in group stage, our next target is to qualify from the group after which we will set the another target.”
And Ogunbote further told MTNFootball.com that their experience against North African opposition last year will now stand them in good stead against the famous ‘Blood and Gold’ from Tunis.
“I don’t have much information about Esperance, but we have an idea about the style of play of North African teams having played some of them last year. I know how North Africa teams play and so we will work with that,” said Ogunbote.
The Akure club have signed three new players for the group phase of the Champions League including Sunday Emmanuel and Cletus Itodo, who were previously with the team before they moved to other clubs this season.
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