Lobi Stars of Makurdi will get a feel of the pitch at the stadium in Pretoria, South Africa on Friday evening, ahead of their CAF Champions League clash with their hosts, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Sports247.ng learnt that the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) champions, who traveled out of Abuja on Wednesday, took a long route to South Africa through Kigali, Rwanda; spending five hours airborne.
The stopover in Kigali meant the Nigerian team traveled for the better part of two days, then left Kigali at midnight for their flight to Nelson Mandela’s country, and could only find time to rest late Thursday on arrival in Pretoria, where they will play The Brazilians on Saturday.
Lobi Stars will now feel the turf of 28,900 capacity Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria on Friday evening ahead of Saturday’s Group A game.
Solomon Ogbeide’s side go into their fourth match of the CCL group stage on the back of a goalless draw away to Wydad Casablanca of Morocco in Rabat, after losing the first leg at home.
They will have to redouble their efforts against Sundowns, who are joint top of the group with seven points, same with Wydad, while Lobi Stars have four points from same number of games.
Lobi Stars will aim for victory in Saturday’s game, which is scheduled to kick-off at 8pm Nigeria time, in order to boost any chance of progression to the knock-out stage.
