NPFL Championship Play-offs preview
June 4th marks the official start of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) post-season. Earlier this year, NPFL, together with the League Management Company and the owners of all 24 clubs, agreed to have play-offs at the end of the regular season. This year, the regular season consisted of 22 rounds with six teams playing the additional five rounds of Championship Play-offs.
Teams will compete on five match days and the last one standing will win the 2018/19 NPFL title. Furthermore, they will, along with the runner-up, represent Nigeria in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League.
Six teams made it into the play-offs, three from Group A (Enugu Rangers, Enyimba and Lobi Stars) and three from Group B (Akwa United, Kano Pillars and FC Ifeanyi Ubah). In Group A, Enugu Rangers finished first, followed by Lobi Stars in second and Enyimba in third place. Akwa United finished top of Group B, with Kano Pillars finishing second and FC Ifeanyi Ubah third.
The Play-offs are scheduled to take place between 4-12th June in the form of league competition. Each team will play the other teams which means five games in the space of eight days. The opening match will be between Enyimba and Enugu Rangers on June 4th in Lagos. In fact, the whole Super Six tournament will be played in Lagos.This is the full schedule:
Round 1 – June 4th, 2019
Enyimba FC vs Enugu Rangers
Kano Pillars vs Akwa United
FC Ifeanyi Ubah vs Lobi Stars
Round 2 – June 6th, 2019
Enyimba FC vs Enugu Rangers
Kano Pillars vs Akwa United
FC Ifeanyi Ubah vs Lobi Stars
Enugu Rangers (www.npfl.ng)
Round 3 – June 7th, 2019
Enyimba FC vs Enugu Rangers
Kano Pillars vs Akwa United
FC Ifeanyi Ubah vs Lobi Stars
Round 4 – June 10th, 2019
Enugu Rangers vs Kano Pillars
Akwa United vs Lobi Stars
Enyimba FC vs FC Ifeanyi Ubah
Round 5 – June 12th, 2019
FC Ifeanyi Ubah vs Enugu Rangers
Enyimba FC vs Akwa United
Lobi Stars vs Kano Pillars
As winners of Group A and Group B respectively, Enugu Rangers and Akwa United must be favourites to win the league title, but anything is possible.
After the five matches are finished, the first team will obviously win the 2018/19 NPFL title while the top two teams will represent Nigeria in the CAF Champions League. The third-placed teams will join the Alteo Cup winner in the CAF Confederation Cup.
You can find the best betting odds for the NPFL play-off games on Bet9ja.
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