Nigeria’s CAF Confederations Cup campaigners Enugu Rangers will face Bantu FC of Lesotho in the playoffs round of the championship with the first leg scheduled for January 11, 2019 in Lesotho while the return leg comes up January 18, 2019in Enugu with several football pundits calling the tie a walk in the park for the Flying Antelopes but here are some things you need to know about the fixture on both ends.
Bantu FC on the continent
Bantu FC defeated Rollers FC of Botswana 4 -2 on penalties after both legs of their CAF Champions League preliminary round ended 1 – 1 home and away which paved the way for a penalty shootout. Meanwhile Bantu crashed out of the CAF Champions League first round after losing to Vital’O of Burundi 5 – 2 on aggregate losing the first leg of the match 4 – 1 in Burundi while playing a 1 – 1 draw in Lesotho.
Bantu FC are yet to win a home game on the continent since 2015 – P4 W0 D3 L1. They have won just 1 of their last 8 games on the continent – P8 W1 D4 L3. Such statistics will give the Aiteo Cup champions lots of excitement going into the first leg of the tie on the 11th of January.
Although the statistics does not favor the team from the southern part of Africa, Enugu Rangers still must be careful not to be complacent when they face Bantu as it will be an achievement of some sort to have two Nigerian teams in the group stage of both the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup.
Despite playing an easy team on paper, Rangers also need to be careful of the jinx thy could also be facing as statistics shows that Rangers FC featured in four (4) previous CAF Confederation Cup playoff rounds – 2004, 2005, 2013, 2017. They failed to qualify past the last three.
Take nothing away from the team from Lesotho as they qualified for the CAF Champions League as the winners of the 2018 Lesotho League. The team is currently placed fourth on the log after nine games with five wins, three draws and one loss.
