The highly anticipated Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Super 6 Championship comprising top three teams from the two groups of the abridged regular season kicked off on Saturday at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena (MJA) Stadium, Lagos state.

All the six clubs battling for the season’s league title, the 100 million naira cash prize and the three available continental tickets were in action yesterday in what was a return of the Nigerian top-flight division matches to DStv and GOtv-owned SuperSport channel since 2017.

Eight-time Nigeria league champions Enyimba and Remo Stars kicked the tournament open on the sunny Saturday afternoon and played out a four-goal thriller draw. Both teams met twice in the regular season – Remo Stars won one while the other ended in a stalemate.

The fireworks did not start until the second half as both teams played a goalless draw in the first half. However, the goals did not start coming until the hour mark when Adiele Eriugo opened the scoring for Enyimba.

With his first touch in the game, substitute, Junior Lokosa, brought Remo Stars back into the game with his 77th minute goal. However, a second look at the video, showed Lokosa might have been in an offside position for the goal but lack of the VAR technology gave the referee no chance for a check.

Barely four minutes later Emeka Obioma would score from a controversial penalty kick to put the Peoples’ Elephant back into the lead. The foul that resulted in the penalty kick against Remo Stars apparently appeared to have happened outside the 18-yard box.

It was the forward’s 10th league goal this season.

However, Nduku Junior grabbed a dramatic stoppage time equaliser for Remo Stars from a well executed freekick routine to salvage a point for the Ogun-based club.

Subsequently, reigning champions Rivers United secured a narrow 1-0 win over Sunshine Stars in the second game of the opening matchday thanks to Chidiebube Duru’s goal in the second-half.

Sunshine Stars were the better side in the first half of the encounter as they had more than 60 per cent possession but failed to penetrate Rivers United defence.

In the 64th minute, Rivers United had a breakthrough when the centre referee controversially awarded a penalty for what looked like a push on a Mark Gibson inside the box. Duru calmly converted the spotkick by sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.

As Sunshine Stars continued to push for an equaliser, it was Rivers United that almost doubled their lead in the 86th minute when Duru’s well-culled left footed freekick struck inside the crossbar. In the end, the left-back’s only goal secured the win for Rivers United.

In the last match of the day, Bendel Insurance and Lobi Stars settled for a goalless draw. Both teams pushed themselves to the edge but neither could get the ball over the line and make it count as Bendel Insurance maintained their unbeaten run across all competitions this season.

After the end of matchday one, Rivers United comfortably sit top of the Playoff Championship table with three points, followed by Enyimba, Remo Stars, Bendel Insurance and Lobi Stars who are on one point each with Sunshine Stars occupying the bottom spot with no point.