Nigeria/Egypt: Enyimba Face Zamalek in Tough CAF Confed Cup Group

Former African champions and Nigeria’s sole representative in this year’s CAF Inter club competitions, Enyimba of Aba, have been drawn in a tricky group where they are to face Confederation Cup holders Zamalek and two other clubs.

Apart from Zamalek, Enyimba will also battle with another Egyptian club, Al Masry and Black Bulls of Mozambique in Group D which has since been named the group of death by football analysts.

After the group matches, the first two clubs from each of the groups will automatically qualify for the quarter-final of this year’s CAF Confederation Cup.

Although Enyimba made history when they won the prestigious CAF Champions League back-to-back in 2003 and 2004, no Nigerian club has won the Confederation Cup.

It will be recalled that Nigeria’s representative in the 2023/2024 edition of the Confederation Cup, Rivers United, reached the quarter-final before they were knocked out by USM Algers.

The ‘Pride of Rivers’ won the first leg 1-0 in Uyo but suffered a 0-2 loss in the return leg to crash out on 2-1 aggregate.

While Enyimba and Al Masry of Egypt are yet to win the Confederation Cup trophy, Zamalex are the second most successful campaigners in the second tier CAF inter-club competition with two titles.

They won their first trophy in 2019 before the second title in the last edition.

The most successful club is Tunisian giants, CS Sfaxien who were champions in 2007, 2008 and 2013.