Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL champions – Rivers United kicked off their 2023–24 campaign with three points after overcoming a rocky start to their title defense in Port Harcourt with a late victory over Lobi Stars.
In a dramatic 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt, the Wike Boys prevented their visitors, the Lobi Stars, from taking home a share of the point.
With the help of Kenechukwu Agu’s injury-time penalty, Rivers United were able to start their NPFL 2023 season with three points.
Morice Chukwu handed the Port Harcourt outfit the lead barely 16 minutes into the clash with a stunning long-range effort, before Abba Umar leveled the score for the visiting side in 55th minute, leaving the Stanley Eguma team with a difficult task.
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The Pride of Rivers made a strong second-half surge, spurred by Nyima Nwagua, but their best effort was a Naibe Akpesiri shot that narrowly missed the crossbar.
Up until the very last second, when Ghanaian defender – Emmanuel Ampiah was brought down in the box and Kenechukwu Agu maintained his composure to send Emmanuel Daniel the wrong way.
POST-MATCH REPORT
Rivers United 2-1 Lobi Stars – Match Report
SUMMARY
Kenechukwu Agu’s stoppage-time penalty snatched three points for Rivers United to get their 2023 NPFL campaign up and running. pic.twitter.com/DIVuBVZ8ar— Rivers United FC (@RiversUnitedFC) January 15, 2023
The 2-1 scoreline was enough to put an end to Lobi Star’s resistance and secure the victory and three points on the first day of the Nigeria Premier Football League.
While speaking to Footballrover shortly after the game, Rivers United defender – Morice Chukwu noted;
“First of all, we thank our Governor – Nyesom Wike for motivating us. For what he has done for us, we believe we are going to pay him back by bringing this same NPFL trophy to him and go far in our continental games.”
Morice Chukwu added;
“Our coach told us that every game that we have to play we must approach like a cup final, which we did in the second half. So, i thank God that we won the game and three points. We believe that as we are going for our away game on Wednesday, we will pick another three points there.”
While Rivers United coach – Stanley Eguma said;
“We’ve started building a new team and we are moving forward. Last season we ended up as champions and this season, we want to defend it.”
He further stressed;
“You know defending the trophy is more difficult than winning it because every eye is on Rivers United. Every team wants to dethrone Rivers United. We have to expect all our games as if it’s a cup final.”
In a move to continue building on their winning momentum, Rivers United will be visiting Sunshine Stars in Akure on Wednesday 18th January 2023 for their next fixture.
𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕? 𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒙!
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