CAF Confederation Cup
AT LAST, RANGERS EARN 1ST CONFEDERATION CUP POINT IN NOUAKCHOTT
First timers Nouadhibou and Nigeria’s Rangers International fired blanks but picked up their first points of the CAF Confederations Cup after playing to a barren draw in Nouakchott on Sunday evening.
The point though will not be beneficial much to the two sides heading into the final half of group fixtures with Egypt’s Pyramids and Al Masry leading the group with nine and six points respectively.
The two sides had lost their opening two matches prior to their meeting on Sunday.
The Mauritanian side, playing at home, didn’t create much in a game that was tightly contested with chances few and far in between.
Their first and probably best chance at goal was in the 18th minute when Sidi Abdoullah was sent through on goal.
However, the forward could not beat the keeper who came storming off his line, placing his shot wide.
It was the Nigerian side who had the lion’s share of scoring chances.
They tried their luck with efforts from distance and it was Uwadiegwu Ugu who lined up first with his low shot turned behind for a corner by the keeper.
Anthony Shimaga was next with a pile diver from distance, but the effort flew over the bar. Kingsley Eleje was then presented with a good scoring opportunity with a freekick from 20 yards out on the left, but once again the effort couldn’t go on target.
In the second half, the home side, pushed on by a sizeable crowd at the Stade Cheikha Boidiya came back with determination to make the chances count, but their ability to pick the right passes in the opponent’s defending third was always failing.
It was Rangers who had another golden opportunity to score, this time Eleje seeing his shot go inches wide off target after doing well to create shooting space from a crowded box.
The tussle was centred in midfield, with both sides squaring out for possession, but the urge to score was always missing as the Mauritanians failed to score in their second out of three group matches.
Heading into the fourth round of matches next month, the two sides are faced with must win situations when they face each other in Nigeria.
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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