CAF Confederation Cup
SUPER-SUB HABA EARNS HOROYA VITAL DRAW AT ENYIMBA
Boniface Haba came off the bench to score a vital equalizer as Guinean giants Horoya held Nigeria’s Enyimba to a 1-1 draw in Aba on Sunday.
Augustine Oladapo had given the home side a first half lead with his third goal of the tournament, but Haba struck back with 20 minutes left for a significant away goal.
In a tightly contested tie, the opening minutes didn’t give much of attacking flair until the 18th when the home side broke the deadlock.
Off a quickly started freekick, Enyimba found the Horoya backline off guard with Oladapo taking one touch to set himself up before firing a vicious left foot strike.
Horoya had chances to draw back level with Alseny Camara coming close with a well taken curling effort from the left which evaded the target by inches.
Aristide Bance lined up next for a chance when he was sent through on goal from the edge of the area but his shot didn’t gather enough sting as it rolled straight to keeper Theophilus Aphelokhai’s waiting arms.
Ghanaian Atta Agyei then did well to find space on the right before cutting back to Morlaye Sylla but his rasping shot was blocked by the defense.
At the stroke of halftime, Enyimba should have doubled their tally when they won a freekick at the edge of the box from good scoring range, but Victor Mbaoma sent the effort straight into the wall.
In the second half, Horoya started off with making changes 10 minutes in, Haba coming on for Bance while Sekou Camara limped off injured and was replaced by Tafadzwa Kutinyu.
The new legs added some firepower for Horoya and they drew level in the 70th minute when Haba beautifully bounced in a header into the bottom left after a pin point cross from Boubacar Samassekou on the right.
The goal lifted Horoya’s spirits but they could not make that count into goals as their decision making failed them in the final third.
At the death, Enyimba would have grabbed the win, but Victor Mbaoma’s execution of a cross inside the box was awry, his attempt at bouncing a volley into the net not being effective as it was cleared away.
Heading into the return tie in Conakry next weekend, Horoya head back home with an away goal advantage and will hope to use it to claim a slot in the semi-finals.
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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