CAF Confederation Cup
ENUGU RANGERS PROMISE TO BATTLE BANTU IN MASERU
Nigeria flagbearers Rangers International of Enugu remain resolute and positive ahead of their Total CAF Confederation Cup first leg Round of 1/16th away tie to Bantu FC of Lesotho to be played on Sunday at the Setsoto Stadium in Maseru.
The Flying Antelopes are unbeaten yet in this campaign and recorded good results away from Enugu in the previous rounds including that flattering 3-1 away win against Defence Force of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa as well as the gritty goalless draw in Algiers against USM Bel Abbes (USMBA).
Yet the West African side are not oblivious of the task ahead against battled-hardened Bantu FC who dropped into the Confederation Cup play-off despite some sturdy performances against Township Rollers FC of Botswana and AS Vital Club of Congo.
“Our fans should expect good football from us and by the way we are the training; and we shall have a good game,” explained Rangers’ winger Bright Silas who scored a brace in the 2-0 wins against USMBA to secure the berth into this round. “We don’t know much about them (Bantu FC) but we shall get the three points because we believe in ourselves.
“We are really motivated because the management (of Rangers) are putting things in order; we are also playing for ourselves; our families and friends; and we have to push ourselves to get good results.”
By the way, Rangers have bounced back from their dwindling fortune of previous years by winning the 2016 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title for the first time since 1983 and added the National Cup last October after 35-years’ period of interruption to secure ticket for their fifth campaign in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Their best outing so far at this level was reaching the group stage in 2004 where they narrowly missed qualification for the final match after coming second behind Asante Kotoko. Last time, Rangers were bundled out in the play off stage as recent as 2017 following a 5-2 aggregate loss to Zesco of Zambia. But the club’s Ghanaian-born goalkeeper, Nana Bonsu believes their past experiences would stand the Flying Antelopes in good stead against Bantu FC.
“We want to take Rangers far (in this competition) and we need the support and prayers of our fans,” stated the 30-year-old stopper who reclaimed the club’s number one shirt after his heroics in the Nigeria national cup final October.
Meanwhile, the second leg of the encounter is fixed for the Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium in Enugu on the 20th January with the aggregate winners over the two legs automatically guaranteed a place in the mini-league group stage.
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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