CAF Confederation Cup
ETOILE DU SAHEL PUSH RANGERS TO 3RD ON THE LOG
Etoile du Sahel bounced back to beat Enugu Rangers 2-1 on Sunday in Sousse for their first win at the group stage of CAF Confederation Cup. The win pushed hitherto Group B leaders, Rangers to the third position on head-to-head classification as both are tied on four points and goal difference.
Bright Silas gave the Nigerians the lead on the quarter-hour mark before Iheb Msakni and Saddem Ben Aziza scored in either half to give ‘Les Diables Rouges’ a lifeline and remain in contention for a place at the next round.
The Tunisians knew they had to prove themselves at home after a winless spell in their last two Group B games. And they almost broke the deadlock on 13 minutes after a free-kick by Maher Hannachi met the head of Ben Aziza, but the latter’s effort went wide.
Rangers responded two minutes later when Michael Uchebo found Silas who went on a run past his markers before firing past Etoile goalie Makram Bdiri.
Etoile were not going to take things lightly. Their response came in the 35th minute when Malek Baayou’s free-kick found Msakni, whose header beat Nana Bonsu in post for Rangers.
The homers resumed stronger and four minutes past the hour mark Darwin Gonzalez had the chance to put them up for the first time, but his effort kissed the crossbar. Ben Aziza who was lurking around tapped home the rebound to give Etoile the lead.
Twelve minutes before the end, Gonzalez was denied by Bonsu as the homers cruised to a narrow win.
In the other Group B match, Tunisia’s CS Sfaxien and Salitas of Burkina Faso settled for a barren draw in Sfax. Sfaxien leads the pack on five points, one more than Etoile and Rangers with Salitas in that order on two points.
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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