Carelessness sees Plateau United exit CAF Confederation Cup, Rivers make group stage

Nigerian clubs Plateau United and Rivers United faced contrasting experiences in their bid to reach the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup on Wednesday.

Both sides who went away to Al Akhdar and Al Nasr Benghazi, respectively, were unable to win their second-leg games, with the former, getting knocked out on the away goals rule following a 3-0 defeat.

Rivers United on the other hand will progress to the group stage at the expense of Al Nasr following a 1-1 draw that saw them secure a 6-1 aggregate victory.

Earlier on Wednesday, Plateau United failed to consolidate on their 4-1 first-leg playoff victory in Abuja a week ago.

The Jos club did manage to hold their hosts to a stalemate for over 45 minutes, seeing off the first half scoreless.

However, a second-half rally got the home team to break the deadlock just two minutes after the hour mark.

Plateau United who had been wasteful for most of the game, got punished even further as Al Akhdar added a second just three minutes into regulation time.

It eventually went from bad to worse in the final minute of added time as the Libyan club found a third, enough to seal passage to the group stage on away goals.

Following the appalling outing from Plateau United, the Nigerian champions stepped onto the Martyrs of February Stadium in Benghazi with many lessons learned.

A week earlier, they had defeated the Libyan side 5-0 leaving not much hope for a possible comeback.

Al Nasr, however, did start the game on the front foot, with Abdul Selam Al Fitouri scoring the first of the game in the 39th minute.

But Rivers United was going to have none of it, and put out the fire on the hour mark as Nyima Nwangwa scored an equalizer, and as well, sending the aggregate scoreline to 6-1.

The hosts did press even harder, but nothing was to come out of it, with the Pride of Rivers, securing a draw and the needed aggregate result to make the group stage of the competition.