Rivers United of Port Harcourt’s coach, Finidi George has admitted that his team was on Monday placed in a difficult group for the CAF Champions League, but declared emphatically that they will be ready to face all their ‘tough’ opponents when the time comes.
Sports247 reports that The Pride of Rivers were pooled into the CCL’s Group A alongside defending champions, Pyramids FC of Egypt as well as Power Dynamos of Zambia and last season’s CAF Confederations Cup winners, RSC Berkane of Morocco; which many pundits have already tagged ‘Mission Impossible’ for the Garden City outfit.
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However, rather than raise his arms in surrender before the race even begins, Finidi boasted that Rivers United will be ready to face all their three group opponents toe-to-toe when the time comes.
The former Super Eagles winger, who played for Ajax Amsterdam of Netherlands, Real Betis of Spain and Ipswich of England during his heyday, added: “It’s a good draw, but a difficult group.
“Yes, it’s a difficult group but, if you want to compete in this type of tournament, at some stage, you have to play against the best teams.
“So, we’ll prepare and be ready when the time comes. But, for now, we’ll just concentrate on our league games. When we’re getting closer to the CAF games, we’ll prepare for that as well and get ready for what’s coming ahead of us.”
Sports247 gathered that Rivers United will have to quickly focus on both the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) and African terrain, as they are billed to play two continental matches before this year runs its full course.
The opening continental fixtures will be on November 21st and 28th, after which the CCL will pause for the Africa Cup of Nations and resume on January 23rd, while the first knock out game is scheduled for March 23rd, 2026.
Finidi and his wards will hope to scale the hurdle of Group A and work harder to go all the way to the final, from which they stand to get $4m as African champions or $2m as runbers-up.
