Anges de Notse coach Losciuto Jean-Francois has blamed his players loss of concentration for their failure to hold on to their 1-0 lead during the weekend’s CAF Champions League preliminary match against Enyimba in Aba.

The Togolese side led 1-0 for almost 81 minutes before Enyimba scored three goals to triumph 3-1 in a dramatic match that played out inside the Enyimba International Stadium in Aba.

With no prior experience in the competition, Anges de Notse, who only last year got promoted to the Premier division, which they in turn won last December, almost had a fairytale start to their CAF Champions League campaign, which coach Jean-Francois said was put to the sword by the resilience of Enyimba players, who he praised for not giving up even in the face of an imminent  home defeat.

“I have to praise and commend Enyimba for their fight to the end. The players never gave up. They showed true characters of warriors”, the Belgian coach said, through an interpreter after the match.

Continuing, he said that “we also played well for about 80 minutes as all our plan was going according to plan until the defenders lost concentration, which allowed the home side to seize the momentum and score two more goals.