African Champions League preliminary round concluded with second leg matches on Tuesday and Wednesday except for one match pitting Gambia Armed Forces against Zambia’s Zanaco that was pushed back to Saturday.
The initial stage of the Africa’s premium interclub knockout tournament lived up-to expectations with a few surprises spicing it up.
Giants like DR Congo’s AS Vita Club, Esperance du Tunis, ES Setif of Algeria and Sudan’s Al Hilal cruised to the first round with relative ease and are expected to reach the later stages of the tournament.
However, emerging Botswana giants Township Rollers bundled out seasonal campaigners El Merriekh of Sudan in one of the rare surprise outcomes.
Rollers thumped the 16-times Sudan Premier League champions 3-0 in Gaborone before scoring in a 2-1 loss away in the reverse tie last night as they sailed through on 4-2 aggregate.
AC Leopards’ downward spiral continued – exiting the competition at the early stage on penalty against little known AS Togo Port of Togo. The tie ended 3-3 on aggregate after identical 2-1 first leg and second leg wins for each sides with the Togolese winning 4-3 on penalty.
Cricket score lines synonymous with this stage of the competition were never in short supply as the big and emerging boys reminded the minnows of the existing gap between them.
It also reignited the debate of whether the African Champions League like the European version should strictly be an elitist competition.
Morocco’s Difaa Hassni d’el-Jadida set Champions League scoring record by putting 10 goals past hapless Sport Bissau Benfica of Guinea Bissau in Jadida.
Surprisingly, the second leg in Bissau after Guinea Bissau FA had threatened to deduct them league points for putting the country to shame ended in a barren draw.
In another outrageous outcome, MC Alger of Algeria whitewashed Congolese side AS Otoho 9-0 in Algiers; the first leg in Congo ended 2-0 in favor of the hosts.
2016 semi-finalists Zesco United of Zambia were equally ruthless in Ndola, Zambia – hammering Zanzibar underdogs JKU FC 7-0 on aggregate after a barren 0-0 first leg draw.
Youth Africans of Tanzania continued to show steady growth in Africa; they edged St. Louis FC of Seychelles 2-1 on aggregate to reach the next stage.
So were Kenyan giants Gor Mahia, who managed to hold Equatorial Guinea’s Leones Vegetarianos 1-1 to reach the first round on 1-3 aggregate for the first time since 2015.
A good number of teams ensured their matches were live on television or online through live streaming a development that was very rare a few years back at this stage.
Al Hilal TV for example stood out in quality production giving African football fans across the globe opportunity to enjoy their match against Liberia’s LISCR FC both home and away.
The competition enters first round early next month with aggregate winners cruising to the lucrative groups’ stage.
Losers will be paired against CAF Confederations Cup first round winners in a draw for a slot in the second tier competition’s group stage.
CAF CL Preliminary Round Results;
