CAF Confederation Cup
Berkane stop Pirates on penalties to win second CAF Confederation Cup title
RS Berkane are the champions of the 2021-22 CAF Confederation Cup after seeing off Orlando Pirates 5-4 on post-match penalties in the final played at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, Nigeria.
The game was forced into penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation plus extra time, and it was the Moroccans who had the penalty luck over their South African counterparts.
Pirates forward Thembinkosi Lorch suffered the extremes of two emotions, scoring a 117th minute equalizer, and then stepping up to see his penalty saved in the shootout.
He was the only one who missed on Pirates’ side while Berkane converted all their five kicks through Hamza El Moussaoui, Youssef Zghoudi, Ismail Mokadem, Issoufou Dayo and Brahim El Bahraoui who scored the winner.
Happy Jele scored the first for Pirates before Lorch, who was also named man of the match, missed the second. Tshegofatso Mabasa, Thabang Monare and goalkeeper Richard Ofori scored the subsequent three, but Berkane didn’t miss any and took the honors.
The game was forced into penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation and extra time, where Pirates dominated and had most of the scoring opportunities. The game stood goalless after 90 minutes, forcing it into an extra 30.
Seven minutes into the first period of added time, Berkane who hadn’t created much all game had their best chance to score, and they took it.
Referee Janny Sikazwe visited the pitch-side monitor to check on a foul by substitute Monare on Mokadem from a corner and the Pirates man was adjudged to have swept down Mokadem inside the box.
Youssef El Fahli stepped forward and with ice cold feet sent Ofori the wrong way to net his fifth goal of the campaign.
Pirates fought to get themselves back into contention and piled in the pressure. They were rewarded for their hunger three minutes to the end through a bizarre goal by Lorch.
The Pirates forward had intended to play a pass inside the box as they pushed Berkane into their own area. However, his intended pass was missed by everyone and trickled into the bottom right of Akbi Hamiani’s goal.
In regulation time, Pirates had the chances and should have wrapped up the game early were they clinical enough.
As early as the third minute of the game, they had a glorious opportunity when Goodman Mosele sent Dean Hotto through on goal with a peach of a through pass, but the winger couldn’t get a strong curl on the ball with space ahead of him.
Mosele created another chance in the 18th minute when he whipped a cross from the right, but skipper Happy Jele’s header looped just over the target.
Their top scorer Bandile Shandu then forced Berkane keeper Hamiani to a neat save in the 33rd minute, his low sweep from the edge of the box being palmed away by a strong right hand from the shot stopper.
In the second half, Berkane somehow upped their attacking game but couldn’t thread in the shots at goal, Ofori not being busy for most of the game.
With no goals in regular time, the game had to go to an extra 30. It ended 1-1, and the winner was decided from 12 yards out.
-Cafonline
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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