Debmarine Premiership champions African Stars’ journey in the CAF Champions League came to a heartbreaking end on Saturday night.

The eight-time league winners were eliminated by Uganda’s Vipers FC after a 1-0 defeat in the second-leg encounter at St. Mary’s Stadium in Kampala, taking the aggregate score to 2-0. 

Stars had gone into the decisive clash trailing 1-0 from the first leg, held at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa.

Despite being the technically better side, Stars were wasteful in front of goal, squandering several one-on-one opportunities, particularly in the first half.

The decisive strike for the hosts came from Yunus Sentamu, securing Vipers’ progression to the next round, where they will face either Asec Mimosas of Ivory Coast or Power Dynamos of Zambia.

Reacting to the result, local football pundit and seasoned journalist Marco Ndlovu described the outcome as unfortunate for the reigning champions.

“It wasn’t their day. They played well but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. They gave it their all, but it just didn’t come together. It was a good fight, but they’ll now have to go back to the drawing board,” Ndlovu said.

Meanwhile, Namibia’s other continental hopefuls, Young African, also bowed out of continental action after a crushing 5-0 second-leg defeat to Royal Leopards of Eswatini in the CAF Confederation Cup preliminary round.

The tie, played at Somhlolo National Stadium, saw goals from Simanga Masangane,
Junior Magagula, Thokozani ‘Thikithi’ Dlamini and Fanelo ‘Twin’ Tsabedze, sealing Leopards’ emphatic 7-0 aggregate victory and progression to the next stage.

– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na