Niger Tornadoes came from teo goals down to beat FC IfeanyiUbah 4-2 in the Aiteo Cup first leg semifinal clash played at the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja on Saturday.
The visitors who showed real intention of defending the cup they won last year opened the lead inside eighth minutes when they capitalized on defensive lapses.
Sunday Akinmoladun's back pass to Edwin Nwakama was intercepted by Godwin Obaje who laid down for Patrick Ikeokwu for little tap in.
The hosts came alive with spirit to level the scoreline but were denied on several times of asking.
Tornadoes lost their top striker Ebenezer Odeyemi to injury in the 28th minutes when crashed into FCIU keeper Drissa Bamba and was replaced by eventual game changer Rabiu Sanni.
Osia rescued matter for the Anambra Warriors in the 38th minutes when he headed out a goal bound shot from Babawo to corner and the scoreline remained as it were till end of half time.
The visitors were not done yet with their spirited performance early in the second as they doubled their lead eight minutes after resumption when King Osanga's 25 yards free kick beat Nwakama who was off his line.
The scoreline looked to have seen FCIU get the job done for a place in the final as the second would mean just a formality.
But Niger Tornadoes came alive with a renewed vigor and purpose to stage the historical comeback.
The start of the goal rush began just two minutes after the hour mark when Rabiu Sani tapped in a rebound from Babawo's shot that was blocked by Bamba.
The hosts leveled the score a minute later when Babawo headed Hussain Isah's delivery to the far corner.
The boys of Coach Abubakar Bala had a penalty appeal waived in the 68 minutes when Elu Wilson upended Babawo in the box.
But the Ikon Allah boys were not deterred as they got the third goal from open play, this time it was a let off in defense which allowed Sanni jabbed in from close range.
With ten minutes remaining and the game heading for the dead, Akinmoladun advanced forward and took advantage of an opening but his effort went inch wide from target.
FCIU defense switched off again and Tornadoes get their fourth goal from another substitute Peter Momoh whose shot beat the defense and Bamba spilled into his net.
Tornadoes almost made it a three goal cushion with a minute to end the entertaining duel when Momoh saw Bamba off his line and take aim at goal but he drilled it wide.
An elated technical Adviser of Niger Tornadoes, Abubakar Bala who praised his players for rallying round to win the game noted that he was confident of getting the victory.
Bala said Tornadoes will get the job for the ticket done in the second leg with confident of edging the defending champions in Nnewi just as he played down his side's chances of winning the competition.
"I fell very happy (with the victory and comeback) this is one of my happiest moments as far as my coaching career is concerned, I knew it was going to be a difficult match but I never expected my boys to make such blunders and concede those two goals.
"You know in football, there will always be a mistake, during our prematch talk we talked about those two goals they scored us, personally I spoke with my goalkeeper (Nwakama) to start the build up with defenders when they are not under pressure, but when they are under pressure he shouldn't start with them, kick the ball away, and failure to heed to that cost us those two goals.
"I was confident we will bounce back, so I was looking for just a goal to be converted from all my boys have been creating, if they get one I know they will comeback and I'm happy they did.
"Yes, the job is almost done, by the grace of God, we will go back to the drawing board and see where we need to adjust and improve, we will map out our strategy and work very hard against second leg, like I've been saying before, my target for this Aiteo Cup is hidden and I want to leave it at that," Coach Bala concluded.
Coach Uche Okagbue who stand in for FCIU technical adviser, Yaw Preko blamed his side's defeat on loss of concentration from the players but confident the Anambra Warriors would turn the table around in Nnewi when both sides meet for the concluding part of the semifinals.
"It was lack of concentration, and football is like that sometimes, and we've taken the defeat in good faith, our boys just switched ooff and the concentration was not there in the second half, we knew the second half would be tough we tried to raise their morale it unfortunately they couldn't hold on.
"The next thing is we've seen them, how they so we will go back to Nnewi and wait for them, I believe we will turn it around and pay them back with their coin," Okagbue said.
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