17th March, 2011
One of the four teams representing Nigeria in continental championships this season, Kano Pillars Football Club of Kano, are about now landing in Casablanca to keep a date with their opponents, Widad de Casablanca of Morocco, for their first leg, Round of 16 Confederation of African Football, CAF, Champions League encounter.
The team departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos yesterday, in high hopes and promised to make Nigerians proud at the continental level.
Pillars are returning to the event after they narrowly missed playing in the final of the 2008/09 when they were defeated in the semi-final by compatriots, Heartland Football Club of Owerri.
To reach this stage of the competition, they played Mighty Barolle of Liberia in a two-legged match. The first leg ended 2-1 in favour of Barolle, while Pillars won the reverse fixture through a lone goal.
Team Secretary of Pillars, Zakari Akilu, who spoke with P.M.Sports before they departed Nigeria for Morocco, said that the technical crew had done their homework and they are sure of taking the North African opponents to the cleaners.
Continuing he stated that all loopholes that may work against their aspiration of qualifying for the money spinning league stage had been adequately looked into. He boasted: “The mistakes that we made against Mighty Barolle of Liberia have been blocked and the players are in high spirits and ready to go against their hostsâ€.
On how much they know about their opponents and their antics, he said that to them, it is as if they are returning to a familiar venue, adding: “It is in the records that we edged out Al Ahly of Egypt, a team that most clubs are scared of. But, somehow we were able to defeat them. So, defeating Widad de shouldn’t be something hard for us, Nigerians should expect a good result from us.â€
—Adebobola Alawode