Jean Denis Lavagne could not hide his frustration as his team reduced to ten men lost to Enyimba at Aba Sunday. Coton Sport needed to win to book a semi – final slot.

Lavagne insists the game was only one half as in his estimation, there was no need to continue the second half going by the magnitude of the rain.

In an interview with CAFONLINE .COM, the Coach regrets losing to the rain and not any form of excellent performance by Enyimba

Are you satisfied with the outcome of the game?

I cannot possibly be satisfied. This is not what we expected. We came with the hope of matching Enyimba strength for strength. This match cannot be all we had prepared for all these days. It falls short of our expectation. Not so much because we lost, but for largely not offering exciting play.

2 – 0 margin is enough to say Enyimba played better than your team. You don’t seem to appreciate that.

What I am saying is that we played against a massively water logged pitch. In that circumstance, there was nothing anybody could do to have good control of the ball. Though football could provide some uncertain conditions, that one was in my thinking one circumstance we would all have avoided. You do not play football under such circumstances.

What would have been done under that circumstance?

Stop the game. Simple! When you notice that the ball can no longer bounce to an appreciable height, the most reasonable thing to do at that point would be to stop the game as it is done other places in the world. I feel frustrated because we have simply lost to natural disaster. One would have expected that Enyimba would outplay our team in all departments.

During the first half when the conditions were still okay, we put up strong resistance and only expected that we would do better in the second half until the rain killed our joy.

You did not see reducing your team to ten men as part of the problem?

It could be part of it but before then, the damage had already been done. What you saw in the second half was a desperate attempt to just complete the game. We no longer felt satisfied by the outcome. I am satisfied with the conduct of my players and refuse to blame them for this undeserved loss. We did not deserve to lose because we did well when the circumstances were within the control of man.

This result means you are out as Hilal scaled through to the semis. What does the future hold for your team?

We will continue our life from here. Already we appreciate rooms for further improvement. But, I must confess; this loss would torment us for a while. We do not want to rue the loss forever. We would go home to prepare for our domestic league. We believe this is not the end of road for Coton Sport.

How would you assess the chances of the four teams that are going to the semis?

The Championship could go in any direction. This stage tends to produce more surprises than other stages. I however foresee good football from all four teams. I cannot say categorically how it could end but I only wish all of them well.