FA Cup: Insurance, Rangers rekindle rivalry as 16 teams battle for quarterfinals ticket
By Kelechi James
Nigeria’s oldest football competition, the President Federation Cup, returns in centres across the country with old foes, Bendel Insurance and Enugu Rangers pitted in a battle that promises great entertainment for fans and a quarterfinal ticket for the winner.
The battle between the former champions at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos, is unarguably the star match of the Round of 16 of the men’s competition of this year’s President Federation Cup.
The two teams were involved in two of the most memorable final matches of Nigeria’s Cup competition in its 80-year history, with honours shared in 1978 and 1981.
The Benin Arsenal tore apart the form books to shock the nation’s football fraternity by spanking Rangers 3-0 in the final, in Lagos, in 1978, but the Flying Antelopes somewhat repaid the compliment with a 2-0 win at the same venue in 1981.
The setting for this Round of 16 clash is also in Lagos, though a different venue. But fireworks are expected by the waterfront from two teams aspiring for continental football.
In other games, two-time CAF Champions League winners, Enyimba FC, who eliminated Cup holders, El-Kanemi Warriors in the Round of 32, will take on Abakaliki FC at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, while Nasarawa United and Bayelsa United will go at each other in the university town of Anyigba, just as Warri Wolves and Wikki Tourists will slug it out in the Federal Capital, Abuja.
Two great entertainers, Ikorodu City and Beyond Limits, will be at each other’s jugular at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, Edo State, where Solution FC will tango with Kwara United in an earlier game. Plateau United will confront Osun United in Anyigba, while Akwa United and Inter Lagos are at loggerheads in Abuja.
