Nigeria National League side, Bayelsa United, have defeated Nigeria Professional Football League side, Nasarawa United, to win the 2021 Aiteo Cup men finals.
The clash, which took place at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, saw the Bayelsa side opening the scoring in the 19th minute through Okardi Inikurogba.
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But that was short-lived as Nasarawa United replied immediately in the 20th minute through Chinedum Ohanachum.
Six minutes after, Nasarawa United who needed the win to qualify for CAF Confederations Cup after losing the slot in the regular season, made it 2-1 through Aliyu Abdullahi.
With the rains gradually going down, the players were finding it difficult to string the passes together due to the wet pitch but that didn’t stop Bayelsa’s Emo James who equalized in the 36th minute to end the first half 2-2.
At the restart of the encounter, both sides evenly matched one another with the goalkeepers fully alert to ensure they don’t pick the ball out of their nets.
Efforts by both sides to score the winning goal proved abortive with the game going straight into penalties which ended 5-3 in favour of Bayelsa United.
Nasarawa’s duo of Dauda Maigishiri and Nwankwo Silas had missed their spot-kicks and Bayelsa’ Gabriel Biriduba miss didn’t prove fatal to his side as they picked the remaining ticket to represent Nigeria on the continental stage.
