CAF Confederation Cup
CAF CONFEDERATION CUP: ‘MOSQUITO’ SIGNALS RANGERS’ REVIVAL AGAINST PELICANS
Nigerian torchbearers Rangers of Enugu continue their chase for continental glory since winning the defunct Africa Cup Winners Cup over four decades ago with a round of 16 first leg clash away to Gabonese side AS Pelican on Saturday in Libreville.
The Flying Antelopes were impressive last season in the same competition reaching the mini-league group stage but failed to progress to the quarter-finals after coming closely in third position behind Tunisian duo CS Sfaxien and Etoile du Sahel.
The seven-time champions have since bolstered their side with some experienced players notably veteran midfielder Ikechukwu Ibenegbu, a household name on the Nigerian football scene through his nickname Mosquito.
“It is great to join Rangers International and I’m here to contribute my quota to the success of the team especially in the CAF Confederation Cup because it has been a long time that the club won anything on the continent,” the experienced 33-year-old Ibenegbu, a graduate of Industrial and Microbiology from Imo State University told CAFOnline.com.
“It is my objective to win everything achievable here with Rangers; and we are looking positively at the CAF Confederation Cup as well as the NPFL and Aiteo Cup in Nigeria.
“I believe with my experience playing on the continent alongside that of others now in the team, would help Rangers achieve more than they did last season.”
Mosquito has indeed impressed over the years having played for the Nigeria Beach Soccer national team as well as the Super Eagles side at the 2016 Africa Nations Championship in Rwanda. He has also tasted continental football during his stints at Heartland of Owerri, defunct Warri Wolves and lately with Enyimba before switching to Rangers.
“Enyimba is familiar with playing on the continent and I had four great seasons with them where I gained so much experience playing in both in the domestic and CAF-organised competitions.
“I’ve been well received and the fans can be rest assured that I’m going to give my best after coming back from a knee injury that kept me out of the game for almost a year.
According to Rangers’ Communications Officer, Norbert Okolie, Mosquito has seemingly not lost his cutting edges with his impressive showings in the club’s practice matches ahead of this weekend’s trip to Gabon.
“Our preparation for the CAF Confederation Cup is well on course. We suffered only one game in 12 friendly matches against both professional and amateur clubs. Ibenegbu (Mosquito) featured in six of those matches and I think the coaching crew led by our new manager Benedict Ugwu is very impressed because he has shown his usual old form and assisted in some of the goals we scored.”
Ibenegbu, who acquired Mosquito as a moniker by admirers due to his bean-pole physique, said his coming over to Rangers soon after winning the 2018/2019 Nigerian league with Enyimba offers him yet another opportunity to show what he’s capable of doing.
“In all my years with Enyimba, I only won trophies in the domestic competition but I believe Rangers is strong enough to go all the way in this year’s CAF Confederation Cup and we must show our capacity starting with this weekend’s match against AS Pelican,” he reiterated.
The second leg will take place in Enugu in a fortnight with the winner advancing to the ultimate preliminary of the second-tier continental championship.
Fixtures
Friday:
- Omdurman El Khartoum (Sudan) vs Motema Pembe (DR Congo)
Saturday:
- Nairobi Bandari (Kenya) vs US Ben Guerdane (Tunisia)
- Kigali AS Kigali (Rwanda) vs Proline (Uganda)
- Lome Maranatha (Togo) vs Djoliba (Mali)
- Libreville Pelican (Gabon) vs Rangers (Nigeria)
- Obuasi Ashantigold (Ghana) vs RS Berkane (Morocco)
- Manzini Young Buffaloes (Eswatini) vs Bidvest (South Africa)
- Cairo Pyramids (Egypt) vs CR Belouizdad (Algeria)
Sunday
- Cotonou ESAE (Benin) vs Salitas (Burkina Faso)
- Sfax Ittihad (Libya) vs HUSA (Morocco)*Match will be played in Sfax (Tunisia
- Algiers Paradou (Algeria) vs CS Sfaxien (Tunisia)
- Curepipe Bolton City (Mauritius) vs Zanaco (Zambia)
- Zanzibar Malindi (Zanzibar) vs El Masry (Egypt)
- Conakry Santoba (Guinea) vs San Pedro (Cote d’Ivoire)
- Nelspruit TS Galaxy (South Africa) vs CNaPS (Madagascar)
- Dar Azam (Tanzania) vs Triangle (Zimbabwe)
-cafonline
CAF Confederation Cup
CAF adjudges Morocco’s Youssef Mehri’s goal as the fastest in football history
Moroccan club, Renaissance de Berkane, beat their Algerian counterparts, CS Constantine, 4-0 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals at the weekend.
The game got off to a dream start for the Moroccan club as it took Youssef Mehri less than a minute to open the scoring in the big win against the Algerians.
Officially, the goal is recorded to have been scored after 13 seconds.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), CAF remarks: “Youssef Mehri goes straight into the history books. The RS Berkane striker scores the fastest goal ever scored in the CAF Cup.”
A deeper search by Sports Village Square indicates that a Nigerian player, Paul Onuachu, had previously scored a faster goal, but not in a CAF Cup duel.
The basketball player-like footballer scored his first international goal in a 1-0 defeat of Egypt on 26 March 2019.
The goal inflicted Nigeria’s first defeat on Egypt in 29 years. But more significant was the timing of the goal. Onuachu, within eight seconds of kick-off, undoubtedly entered the record books as the second fastest goal in international football records after that of Germany’s Lukas Podolsk, who scored after six seconds in a friendly against Ecuador in 2013.
Fans had hardly settled down at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba for the Nigeria versus Egypt match when Onuachu released a thunderous shot that turned out to be the match’s decider.
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The Renaissance Sportive de Berkane delegation will travel to Algeria this Friday to face CS Constantine in the CAF Cup. Tension may be building up for the potentially explosive confrontation that could have a build-up from last year’s fixtures of the Moroccan club and another Algerian outfit, USM Algiers, in the CAF Confederation Cup.
A Moroccan news outlet, Sport.le360, reports that a Tunisian airline will operate the direct flight between Oujda-Angad Airport, which is located about 12 kilometres north of Oujda and about 600 kilometres northeast of Casablanca, near the Algerian border and Constantine Mohamed Boudiaf International Airport.
Last year, political differences between Morocco and Algeria scuttled similar semi-final clashes between clubs of both countries.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday ruled in favour of the Algerian football federation in a row over a map of Morocco on shirts worn by Renaissance Berkane in the 2024 CAF Confederation Cup.
Algerian club USM Alger were kicked out of last year’s competition after both legs of their semi-final against Berkane were cancelled because of a diplomatic dispute.
Neither match took place as USMA and the Algerian authorities objected to a map of Morocco on the Berkane shirts which included Western Sahara.
Algeria cut diplomatic ties with North African neighbours Morocco in 2021, partly over the Western Sahara issue.
The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks the territory’s independence.
The Confederation of African Football awarded Berkane a 3-0 victory for both legs of the semi-final.
CAF at the time responded to an appeal by the Algerian FA by ruling in favour of Berkane, saying the club had been wearing the same jerseys since the start of the tournament.
But the Algerian FA took the case to sport’s highest court in Switzerland, which determined that the shirts in question were “contrary to CAF regulations, as they display a territorial map that is of a political nature.”
“The image of a map of Morocco including Western Sahara on the shirts of RS Berkane depicts a message, a demonstration or propaganda of a political nature as it represents the assertion of a territorial dispute that is contested and still unresolved as of today,” CAS said in a statement.
“By the laws of the game of the International Football Association Board, it is prohibited to convey any content of a political nature on all equipment, including shirts.”
CAS added that the initial decision by CAF to “maintain the approval of the shirts is annulled”, but the court said that it would have no effect on the results of the tournament.
Egypt’s Zamalek beat Berkane on away goals in the final.
-AFP
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