The Nigerian club were paired with the Ivorian side during Thursday’s draw for the 2026/27 competition.
While NPFL champions Rangers International will face Benin Republic’s Sobemap FC, Rivers United must overcome FC San Pedro to reach the second preliminary round.
Reacting to the draw, Finidi expressed mixed feelings but remained optimistic that Rivers United can progress in the competition.
“Yeah, the draw, I would say, is not a bad one,” he said.
“But then, you don’t know what’s going to happen in these games. But it’s quite a fair one.
“We’ll try to see how we can know more about them and see how we can strategise. We’re going there first, so that’s a good thing.
“We’ll see how we can get a good result over there and then we come back home and see how we can get to the next round of the preliminaries.”