Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) champions, Enyimba International, completed a historic comeback from a goal down to edge their rivals Kano Pillars 2-1 at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano on Wednesday.
It was the first time that the Peoples Elephant will bag full points in the northern city since the NPFL era at Kano Pillars.
Nzube Anaezemba and Ike ThankGod scored for Enyimba to make Rabiu Ali’s early goal irrelevant in the big clash.
Kano Pillars coach, Mohammed Baba Ganaru, stuck to the same start list that earned them the three points at Sunshine Stars on Sunday while his Enyimba counterpart, Paul Aigbogun brought on ThankGod to partner captain Chinedu Udoji in the heart of defence.
Dare Ojo, who naturally plays in the middle of the park, was a makeshift right-back for Enyimba with Anaezemba, Kelly Kester and Sikiru Kamaldeen preferred in midfield. And Theophilus Afelokhai who left Pillars to join Enyimba at the start of this season was named in goal against his former teammates.
The opening quarter of an hour had little to drool over. On 20 minutes, Kano Pillars captain, Rabiu Ali, opened the scoring from a well-taken free kick despite Kester’s commanding presence in the battle to wrest the midfield.
Enyimba created their own opportunities and in the 33rd minute, Abu Azeez’s right-footed attempt forced Kano Pillars goalkeeper Yusuf Mohammed to make a big save.
The next 10 minutes would prove decisive, as Afelokhai kept out the efforts of Ifeanyi Matthew and Rabiu Ali to ensure that Enyimba went into the break with just one goal conceded.
Six minutes into the restart, the Peoples Elephant began the comeback. Anaezemba created space for himself to fire in from close range to level the score at 1-1.
Pillars then poured forward in a bid to restore their lead but they just failed to always complete their passing move in the final third.
On 82 minutes, Enyimba stunned their hosts. ThankGod headed in the winner off a corner kick.
Enyimba then put up a solid defensive performance to deny their hosts in the last seven minutes plus added time despite losing their goalkeeper, Afelokhai, to injury. His replacement, Femi Thomas, put in a decent shift to foil scoring chances by substitute Adamu Mohammed and Azeez Shobowale in added time.
The victory takes Enyimba out of the bottom-four into 15th position with 17 points from while Kano Pillars miss the chance to go top if they had won though they remain in second place with 24 points, three behind leaders Rangers.
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