Al-Hilal Omdurman striker Azeez Shobowale believes the club can progress to the 2018 CAF Confederation Cup group stages should they replicate last Wednesday’s performance in Nigeria.

The Sudanese champions beat Akwa United 2-0 in the first-leg of their final playoff round in Omdurman and they will advance to the group stage of the Confederation Cup if they defend their result in Uyo.

Despite the win, the Blues squandered a host of chances in the game to the chagrin of their boisterous supporters with the talking point of the game being the home team’s second goal which television replays later showed to have been scored from an offside position.

However, Shobowale believes they could advance to the next phase of the competition if they can repeat the display they put on Wednesday.

“Well, I will say we are happy with the result on Sunday; we scored two early goals in the first half and wanted to score more but Akwa United defended well in the second half, but we are happy they did not get an away goal.

“Coming to Nigeria for the return leg won’t be an easy task but we are well prepared for that and I’m sure we can finish off the work and qualify for the group stages,” Shobowale told AOI Football.

The striker was thankful to their teeming fans who turned up in their numbers to cheer them on.

“We are thankful to the fans for such a rousing support. I’ve not seen them this way in recent times. It’s rather unfortunate we couldn’t win massively but we still have a game to make amends,” Shobowale added in a separate interview.

Akwa United will need two unreplied goals to overturn the deficit if they are to stand any chance of progressing to the group stage of Africa’s second-tier club competition.