After losing its 10-match unbeaten run in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) to Katsina United penultimate Sunday, Rangers Internationals of Enugu are hoping to bounce back to winning way when their host Abia Warriors in an ‘Oriental Derby’ inside the main bowl of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium on Tuesday, April 16, 2024,
In the first leg fixture of the encounters played at Umuahia Township Stadium, November 26, 2023, it took Collins Nwoburuoke’s 3rd minute strike to secure all the three points at stake for the Umuahia side as they stretched their dominance over the ‘Flying Antelopes’ to seven wins, four losses and three draws in the fourteen encounters between the two sides since the 2015 league season.
Going into this matchday30 fixture, the seven-time champions Rangers are holding on to a slim goal difference league at the top of the 2023/24 NPFL table after falling to a 4-3 defeat against Katsina United at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium in Katsina on Matchday29.
Speaking ahead of the match, Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu, declared he was not too happy with the manner his side’s unbeaten run was truncated at Katsina United.
“The encounter with Abia Warriors is going to be very tight because no team is a pushover in the NPFL. No team is a small team. You can’t say you will win when you have not played the game. What we are going to do is continue to do our work and we are going to be positive going into the ‘Oriental Derby’ just as we want to quickly put the loss in Katsina behind us and focus on the game at hand with the mindset for a positive result,” Ilechukwu stated.
With the expected return of some of the well-rested players who missed the trip to Katsina, Rangers would be looking to edge Coach Bethel Orji’s tutored side in today’s titanic soccer battle, following the re-arrangement of the fixture by the league organizers.
Rangers’ goals machine, Godwin Obaje who at a time in his career featured for the Umuahia side will be looking to increase his goals return for this season after hitting eight into the opponent’s nets will have a tough battle with Ifeanyi Anaemena while Enugu brought-up, Samson Obi will hopefully lead the attack for the visitors who will have a full complement of its backline that leaked only three goals in the last ten matches before the Katsina loss.
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