Rewa targets comeback win

The Kavaia Rawaqa-captained Rewa football side will look to bounce back when it faces Tupapa Maraerenga FC in the second round of the Men’s OFC Champions League at Govind Park, Ba, tomorrow.

Rewa went down 4-1 to Galaxy in the opening round at Churchill Park, Lautoka, on Sunday, but player-coach Tevita Waranaivalu said the side still has two matches to secure a place in the semi-finals.

“We have two more games at hand. We chose this path into the semi-finals, so we have to go into the hard-fought games,” Waranaivalu said.

“We will go back, look into this game, take the positives out of it, improve and then come back in the next two games.”

Rewa brought in several players for the tournament, including New Zealand-based Semi Nabenu, Solomon Islanders James Do’oro and Don Keana, Brazil’s Lucas Santos and New Caledonia’s Joseph Athale.

Waranaivalu said the team had only a week to prepare after the new recruits arrived.

“We might need a little bit of time, but look, it’s football.

“If you come one week or three days before the game, we still have to play and win.

“Yes, we still have, like I said, two more games. We’ll go back, we’ll look into our game, and then we will come back stronger.”

Setareki Hughes came off the bench in the second half after carrying a minor injury during training.

“Putting him on the bench, he faced a niggling injury in training. I didn’t want to force him to play in the first half.

“But coming into the second half, we could see he contributed so much to creating opportunities.”

Waranaivalu also thanked Rewa’s supporters in the Western Division for their backing.

“Thank you so much for your prayers. Your support really means a lot to us.

“Even though we couldn’t get you the win today, we believe that in the next two games, we should bounce back.”

The Rewa-Tupapa match kicks off at 4pm.

Feedback: waisean@fijisun.com.fj