Dannaz Ladies Football Club of Lagos on Sunday in Enugu defeated Crystal Stars FC of Yenagoa 2-1 in a 2022 Aiteo Federation Cup women’s competition fixture.

In the round of 32 match played at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus (UNEC) football pitch, Ayoka Akinbo opened the scoring for Dannaz Ladies in the 25th minute.

Dannaz Ladies made it 2-0 through Amarachi Ansellem who scored in the 37th minute.

Crystal Stars looked more determined in the second half and got rewarded in the 71st minute through Ozioma Akuneto, and that was as far as they got.

In another fixture in the competition, Naija Ratels of Abuja walked over Rivers Angels FC of Port Harcourt as they did not honour their match.

Dannaz Ladies and Naija Ratels have qualified for the competition’s round of 16.

In a post-match interview, Dannaz Ladies’ coach, Diana Asak, praised her players for coming out top in their match despite being debutants in the competition.

”This is the first hurdle and thank God we won. So, we have to keep on taking it one game after the other. Definitely, we did not get it right in the match but we have to improve the team in some areas before our next match,” said Asak. “This is our first match in the competition and I believe we have young and good players to go far in the competition.”

Coach Sese Ebimobowel of Crystal Stars, on his part, said his team lost the match in the midfield as his midfielders could not supply the right final passes to the strikers.

“We need to work on our midfield, because the strikers were denied the necessary passes to get the needed goals which would have propelled us to the next level,” he added. “In fact, many things worked against us in the match and one of them was playing on synthetic pitch for the first time. I believe that the players gassed out before full-time because they are not used to synthetic pitch.”

(NAN)