CAF Confederation Cup
AL MASRY RUN RIOT TO HIT RANGERS IN SIX-GOAL THRILLER
Egyptian side Al Masry beat Nigeria’s Rangers International 4-2 in Alexandria on Sunday to maintain their winning form and move top of Group A with a 100 per cent record.
The Nigerians scored two late goals in the final four minutes of the game, but the comeback was too little too late as Masry had already sealed their three points.
Austin Amutu and Ahmed Mostafa scored to give the home side a 2-0 advantage at half time.
In the second half, Moftah Hamad and Hassan Ibrahim found the ba ck of the net as the Egyptians cruised. Emmanuel Madu and Chidera Ezeh scored the two late consolations for the visitors.
Masry showed their intention from the word go and were in the lead after five minutes when Amatu slammed the ball into the top left corner after a beautiful cut back from Hamad.
They found themselves 2-0 up after 26 minutes when Mostafa’s effort from the right curled beyond the keeper who had advanced off his line.
The Nigerian side’s push was nipped right in the bud in the 83rd minute when Masry scored their fourth, Ibrahim striking a superb left footed curling effort from the edge of the area to drive the final nail on Rangers’ coffin.
But the Nigerians would not go down easily as they fought to reduce their deficit, first Madu heading home from a corner in the 86th minute before Ezeh’s freekick evaded everyone inside the box before rolling into the bottom left corner.
With the result, Rangers remain bottom of the group having also lost their opening game 3-1 at home to another Egyptian side Pyramids.
Masry continued to dominate and almost made it 3-0 at the stroke of half time, but Amutu’s shot from Karim Eleraky’s cross from the right was deflected for a corner.
In the second half, it only took the home side two minutes to cement their lead. Hamad slammed the ball into the net when he picked up an Eleraky cross from the right with the Rangers defend caught flat out.
Rangers showed some desire to cut the deficit and they improved their attacking play. On the hour mark, they came close with Isaac Loute forcing the Masry keeper to a good save from a freekick while two minutes later, substitute Ifeanyi George’s low shot was saved by the keeper.
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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