Zonal Elimination Male Football: Lagos, Osun Fight For Edo 2020 Ticket

SUNDAY AKINTOYE

Team Lagos male football will be aiming to secure the ticket to play in the National Sports Festival coming up in Edo State in March as they face Team Osun in the final match of the South West Zonal Elimination Championship holding in Lagos.

Lagos is holding the zonal elimination which is being competed by all the six states in the zone.

On Wednesday, playing at home, Team Osun held Team Lagos to a 1-1 draw, while the Lagos State boys will be playing away in today’s match to decide who win the sole ticket to feature at the festival proper in Edo State.

Ahead of the cracker, Osun State football team have vowed to stop Team Lagos in today’s game, which holds at the Agage Stadium.

Coach of Team Osun, Sadiq Lasisi told P.M. EXPRESS the second match against Lagos will be crucial to them, adding that the  target is to beat them or play goalless draw with Lagos in the second leg.

“Our match against Lagos team on Wednesday showed that we can pick the sole ticket because despite their vociferous fans and intimidation by their fans, we still played them 1-1. We need to play them back and this time around, we will beat them or at the worse play draw game to book a place in the finals.

“I must commend the officials for the good job done and my team. It shows that we can win the second leg without stress,” he said.

Assistant Coach of Team Lagos, Ahmed Sulaiman said his team have the better chance to beat Osun in the return leg saying that all their mistakes committed in the first match would be corrected.

“We were disappointed in the coaching crew because our players missed more than ten scoring chances. We only converted one. I think we have identified the problem and we will correct it because our second match is a must win for us if we want to be in National Sports Festival. We don’t want to disappoint our fans and we are urging them to continue supporting us,” he said.

In the results of the female category, Lagos walloped Ogun 6-0, while Ondo played 1-1 with Ogun.

Action continues Thursday when Lagos face Osun, Ekiti Face Ogun in the male category

Meanwhile Chairman Technical Committee of Lgos State Football Association, Dotun Coker expressed satisfaction with the conduct of fans, officiating and standard of play urged the fans to shun violence that may tarnish the image of the game.