CAF Confederation Cup
It’s CAF Confederation Cup West African derby as Rivers flow into Ghana
Rivers United will hope to continue their splendid performance in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup as they hope to set up a nightmare for Ghana’s Dreams FC this Sunday.
Rivers United were off to a bright start after beating Academica do Lobito of Angola 3-0 in Uyo. In contrast, Ghana’s Dreams FC will be aiming for a comeback after slumping to Tunisia’s Club Africain last weekend.
A win for Rivers United will put them in good frame for the knockout stage of the competition.
In the same group, both Club Africain and Academica do Lobito face each other in the early evening fixture where the Tunisians are aiming for nothing less than a victory to keep their winning run, while the Angolans will be looking at getting out of the bottom of the group.
In the continuation of the MatchDay 2 there are a total of eight fixtures on the card this Sunday .
Kicking things off will be the reigning champions of the competition, USM Alger who will be travelling from the northern tip of the continent down to the south where they will face South Africa’s, SuperSport United – runners up of the competition in 2017.
In a simultaneous fixture, Libya’s Abu Salem who played well against Zamalek last week despite their narrow 1-0 loss have a chance to reverse their fortunes when they travel to Angola’s Segrada Esperanca, who are fresh from their 2-0 win over CO Coyah last weekend.
In Mali, Stade Malien plays host to RS Berkane of Morocco who are looking at reclaiming their 2022 title in this new season. The Moroccans got their campaign off to a good start last weekend with a 2-0 victory over debutants Sekhukhune United of South Africa but will have a much tougher assignment when facing Stade Malien who won 3-1 away from home against Diables Noirs last week.
Closing off the Sunday fixtures will be Guinea’s CO Coyah welcoming former champions, Zamalek in a must win match for the hosts, in what will be an uphill task against the highly experienced Egyptian side.
Sekhukhune United, who recently appointed a new coach in Lehlohonolo Seema must get a result against Diables Noirs. Both sides suffered losses against RS Berkane and Sagrada Esperanca respectively and anything less than a win from either side will put them in a very difficult position to come back into contention for a place in the knockout stages.
CAF Confederation Cup Fixtures | Sunday, 03 December:
13h00 GMT | Abu Salem v Sagrada Esperanca
13h00 GMT | SuperSport United v USM Alger
16h00 GMT | Stade Malien v RS Berkane
16h00 GMT | Dreams FC v Rivers United
16h00 GMT | Al Hilal Benghazi v Modern Future
16h00 GMT | Academica do Lobito v Club Africain
17h00 GMT | CO Coyah v Zamalek
19h00 GMT | Sekhukhune United v Diables Noirs
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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