Pirates Fall, Al Ahly and Sundowns Soar As Group Stage Takes Shape
Orlando Pirates fell and failed to progress to the CAF Champions League at the hands of Botswana’s Jwaneng Galaxy. The Buccaneers needed two goals but could only find the net once at the Orlando Stadium. Evidence Makgopa’s 66th-minute strike was enough to win the battle, but not enough to collect the bounty of a group stage ticket. The lottery of penalties meant Morena Ramoreboli and his galaxy of unknown stars progressed to the club’s second group stage experience.
There were no such problems for South Africa’s other representatives, Mamelodi Sundowns. The former CAF Champions League champions eased past Bumamuru without engaging third gear. It was over as a contest in the first which ended 4-0 in favour of The Brazilians. A brace from Lucas Costa Ribeiro literally ended the tie after 37 minutes at the Azam Sports Complex in Tanzania.
Usual suspects, Al Ahly and Wydad Casablanca are also through to the group stage with wins over St. Georges and Haifa FC respectively. Haifa FC of Ghana had given themselves a small glimmer of hope with a 1-1 first-leg result, but two goals in the first half of the second leg put out whatever fire had been carried from Guinea. Al Ahly played their first leg a few days later than all the other teams, but it made no difference as the defending champions made light work of Ethiopian giants, St. Georges. A 7-0 aggregate score sent a clear message to the rest of the continental football powerhouses, Al Ahly are not here to play.
Esperance de Tunis of Tunisia were far from convincing, but the 1-0 win in the first leg meant that the underwhelming 0-0 result against Burkina Faso’s AS Douanes was good enough for a place in the round-robin football fiesta. A big improvement will be needed if Mohamed Amine Tougai and his teammates are to even make it out of the group stage.
TP Mazembe are back in CAF Champions League big time thanks to a 4-0 thrashing of Nyasa Big Bullets from Malawi. Marcell Ngimbi scored the fourth with just 40 minutes on the clock to put the tie to bed. Young Africans along with Simba SC and their very large band of merry supporters will be traveling around Africa after getting past El Merreikh of Sudan and Zambia’s Power Dynamos respectively. Al Hilal made sure Sudan would be represented in the group stage though, defeating Primiero Agosto of Angola.
ASEC Mimosas of the Ivory Coast, Ghana’s Medeama SC, Petro du Luanda from Angola, Tunisia’s ES Sahel, and Mauritania champions FC Nouadhibou will also be joining the group stage dance. CR Belouizdad lead Bo Rangers 3-1 from the first leg and should get their ticket on Monday night.
