Aduana Stars midfielder Elvis Opoku has ascribed their defeat against ES Setif in the CAF Champions League to adverse weather conditions in Algeria.
After winning the first encounter by 1-0, Aduana Stars needed to avoid defeat to advance to the money zone of the competition.
However, the Ghana Premier League champions were thump 4-0 against eight-time Algerian champions in the return encounter at the Stade Mai 8 1945 on Sunday.
And according to Opoku, the weather in Algeria was not friendly to them and pointed out the deficiency of the official in the match.
“The midfield broke down because it got to a time when the players were very missing in the game because the weather was not favourable. The weather here was zero degrees and the rain was falling and so I think the weather got the better of us. We didn’t expect this kind of weather,” he told reporters after the game.
“Officiating was terrible, if you look at their first two goals, one was offside and the other was a hand ball and they frustrated us, throwing their fists and a what not but the referee will not cautioned them because after 20 minutes we were on top and if the referee did not help them they would have been in trouble but we will take all this in good fate.”
The midfielder explained that they were terrified by the attitudes of their opponents insisting the North Africans frustrated them and communicated more with the referee as they had issues with language barrier.
“They inspired fear in us, and they kept terrifying us so there was a lot of fear on the pitch. Before they even scored the first goal our player was on the pitch but they rushed to the referee putting some fear in him,” he said of their ordeal.
“At a point I had to withdraw back for us to be able to control a bit of the game. This is something peculiar with the Arabs and Setif, if you are strong enough you can’t stand them and this contributed to our defeat,”
“The referee spoke French and even though he understood English he won’t communicate with us and spoke only with them (Setif) in French,” Opoku added.
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