CAF Confederation Cup
Titanic Battle as Enyimba and Al Masry face zero option
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It may turn out to be the most fiercely contested Match Day 5 in the CAF Confederation Cup as Nigeria’s Enyimba face Al-Masry of Egypt.
Both sides face zero option as neither will want to drop a point going into the last match day of the Group D. Just a point separates the second-placed Al-Masry and the fourth-positioned Enyimba who share the same points, 4 with Mozambique’s Associação Black Bulls.
The Mozambique side is however ranked third on account of away goals scored in head-to-head matches. Black Bulls scored one against Enyimba who fired blank away, although both have a three-goal margin win in their respective home games.
A win by Enyimba will take the team to second position with seven points leaving Al-Masry with five. The projection is based on the likely win of Zamalek over visiting Mozambique’s Associação Black Bulls.
By that, Zamalek, with possible 10 point, will become the breakaway leaders of the group, leaving Enyimba to battle fiercely for the second Group D slot.
Such a scenario has made the Uyo match a potentially high-risk and possibly bitterly contested.
Al-Masry director, Mohamed Abdel-Karim is quoted by Egyptian publication, Ahram as expressing deep concerns.
He acknowledged the tough road ahead for his team in securing a quarterfinal berth, primarily as the outcome hinges on the last round of group-stage matches.
“Our players are mentally prepared and focused on attaining a positive outcome against Enyimba,” Abdel-Karim affirmed in anticipation of the upcoming game.
“The significance of this match against Enyimba is well understood by our players, given its pivotal role in our quest for the quarterfinals,” he stressed.
He highlighted the team’s aspirations, “We harbour great ambitions and will exert maximum effort to delight our supporters.”
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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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