Galadinma Confident Of Pillars' Chances

Ibrahim Galadima, vice chairman of Kano Pillars’ Continental Committee, has declared that the team will turn things around in the second round, second leg of the CAF Champions League in Kano.


The reigning Nigeria Professional Football League champions suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat against Moghreb Tetuoan in the first leg, second round encounter played in Morocco on March 21.

Thereafter, the Nigerian representatives who returned from Morocco via Cairo to the northern city last Thursday resumed camping for the return leg just 24 hours later. Ahead of their dicey reverse fixture scheduled for Saturday in Kano, Galadima insists Pillars are psychologically prepared and morally motivated to summount the challenge ahead of them.

“I don’t think it is possible to share with you details of the plans we have and nobody can tell you how we are going to play. The best I can tell you is that we are playing our match on Saturday,” Galadima told Goal.

“We are getting ready and doing the best we can to face the opposition in Kano. The team has been in closed camp since Friday and we are doing everything as a team.

“The boys are psyched up to face the task which is not impossible for them to cancel the 4-0 we lost in Morocco. We are doing everything possible in the circumstances we’ve found ourselves.

“We are very optimistic. In football, anything can happen – it also happened to the Morrocco side who went to Mali and were 2-0 down but advanced winning 3-0 at home. Losing 4-0 in the first leg doesn’t mean we can’t beat them 4-0 here,” he said.

Despite admitting an uphill task, the former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) insists the team is not down but focused and strategising on making history.

“It is not the first time it has happened to any club side. So therefore,we are not pessimistic about it. We are looking forward to the match. The mistakes in Morocco have been identified and then everything is being done to over-write what went wrong going to the first leg.

“I pray we (Warri Wolves, Kano Pillars and Enyimba) win the remaining teams in the continental competitions, we continue to fly the flag of the country high. Nigerians too should rally round the teams,” he said.

Faced with a mountainous task, Okey Emordi’s men must score at least four unreplied goals to have a sense of reaching the next stage of the 2015 CAF Champions League.