Former champions Orlando Pirates’ return to the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League got off to a great start with a vital 1-0 away win over Djabal FC in the Comoros in the first leg of the preliminary round of the competition on Saturday.
The Buccaneers, who are known to enjoy good runs in CAF inter-club competitions, return to Africa’s premier club competition after missing out last season.
Champions in 1995 and runners-up in 2013, the South Africans got their campaign off to a good start with a narrow victory over the islanders, a side they met at the same stage of the competition in 2013, where they cruised past them with a 9-0 aggregate.
Djabal came out a much-improved side from 10 years ago, and held the South Africans for the most part of the match before a lapse of concentration in the dying minutes saw the in-form Zakhele Lepasa get the winner to give Pirates a slim advantage ahead of the return leg.
In another afternoon fixture, Namibia’s African Stars shone bright when they emerged victorious over Zambia’s Power Dynamos with a 2-1 win in a match played in Soweto’s Dobsonville Stadium in South Africa.
Goals by Peter Adiwoh and Edmund Kambanda secured the victory for the Namibians, while Andy Boyeli’s consolation will give the Zambians a fighting chance when they host Stars in the return leg next weekend.
Meanwhile, in Mali, Real Bamako were unlucky not to get a victory at home after an evenly-balanced encounter with Coton Sport de Garoua of Cameroon ended in a 0-0 stalemate.
Both sides had an equal chance of getting a result, but the visitors will have their keeper, Merlin Lako Emile, to thank for the draw, who did well to save a penalty in the 60th minute to keep things level ahead of the return leg.
In Sierra Leone, Bo Rangers played out a 1-1 draw against Liberia’s LISCR FC, while Rwanda’s APR were also held to the exact same scoreline at home against Somalia’s Gaadiidka FC.
The first round of the preliminary fixtures drew to a close yesterday, with more high-octane African club football action to feast on.
Some of the marquee fixtures included Cote d’Ivoire’s Asec Mimmosas travelling to meet Benin’s Coton Sport, while Morocco’s AS Far were away to ASKO in Togo.
In Libya, Al Ahly Benghazi played host to Nigerian powerhouse Enyimba. -www.cafonline.com