HiFL 2021: UNIBEN ROYALS, AAUA LUMINARIES QUALIFY FOR QUARTER FINALS

Defending champion of the Higher Institutions Football Leagues (HiFL) UNICAL Malabites have been knocked out of this year’s competition by UNIBEN Royals despite winning their home game in Calabar. The Malabites needed two goals to edge the Royals and cancel the deficit from their 4-2 loss during the first leg in Benin.

After the ceremonial kick-off by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Banku Obi, the Malabitesshowed their intentions to win the game through series of attackson the Royals. Uloko Simon eventually gave the Malabites the lead in the 45th minute, keeping the team’s hope of canceling the deficit in the second half. However, the Royals have other ideas as they stood firmly and defended tenaciously to keep the Malabites strikers at bay as the match ended 1-0. The Royals qualified on a 4-3 goals aggregate while Ujah Christian of the Malabites won the StanbicIBTC Man-of-the-Match Award.

In his reaction after the games, Chief Strategy Officer at Pace Sports, Mr. Goodness Onyejiaku said “This fine display of sportsmanship gladdens our hearts. Again, our sponsors, StanbicIBTC, Nivea Men, Minimie and Bold have continued to demonstrate their love for youth development in Nigeria through their support for HiFL. While they pursue academic excellence, these youths have an opportunity to explore other talents thereby providing them with an array of choices as they grow into becoming the better persons they crave”.

In the game played in Minna, the FUTMINNA Transformers scored three goals in the first half against the LAUTCEH Hunters. Abubakar Mahmud got a brace for the Transformers in the 22nd and 41st minutes while Nda Ogubile scored in the 37thminute. The Transformers however got a scare in the second half as the Hunters reduced the deficit in the 46th minute through Owoade Joseph and Aremo Mathew in the 81st minute, but could not get the needed equalizer to qualify on the away goals rule. The match ended 3-2 on the aggregate in favour of the Transformers.

Speaking after the game, the Head Coach of the Transformers, Ahmed Usman Bosso acknowledged the efforts of his players and promised to work on the team’s deficiencies as exposed in the game. “From the beginning of the game, I felt bad, at the middle I felt happy and that was when we scored the three goals before the end of the first half. However, throughout the second half I felt bad…Unfortunately, we have many causalities now…many of the changes I made in the second half were due to these causalities. I am going to work closely with the team doctors to ensure that all the cases are well handled and treated before our quarter final games.”

In other matches, AAUA Lumanaries played a 1-1 draw against the OAU Giants to qualify on the away goals rule. The first leg played at OAU ended in a nil draw. In Maiduguri, UNIMAID Desert Warriors defeated BUK Stallions 3-2 to qualify on a 5-3 goals aggregate.