Group stage beckons in Champs League

4 May 2011

The 2011 CAF African Champions League continues this weekend, with seven of the eight places up for grabs in the group phase set to be determined.

With eight second round (last 16) matches to be played over the weekend, two ties will be decided over just one leg: Enyimba v Al-Ittihad and Raja Casablanca v ASEC Mimosas have been reduced to single-game playoffs due to the dangerous political situations in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire respectively.

The tie between CotonSport and Entente Setif sees the sides playing their rescheduled first leg match: the fixture was postponed in order to accommodate the Cameroonian side, who had four players away with their national U-20 team at the recently completed Africa Youth Championship.

The remaining five ties are all heading into the second leg, and only Tunisia’s Esperance can claim to have a group phase berth all wrapped up. The North Africans head to Dakar to face Diaraf with a 5-0 lead from the first leg and will surely cruise through to the next phase.

Perennial contenders Al Ahly still have some work to do in their tie with ZESCO United. The first leg in Ndola, Zambia, ended 0-0, which leaves the Egyptians needing a win on their home ground to advance.

Al Ahly coach Manuel Jose is certainly confident that his side will beat the Zambians: “Zesco is not really a bad team, but we played a better game than them, we respect them though. But one thing is for sure, when they come home (to Cairo), it will not be a draw; it will be a win because our field is not heavy, it is a good field for playing international matches,” Jose said after the first leg, in which he felt the playing surface was not up to scratch.

MC Alger are in a similar position to Ahly, having drawn their first leg match away to Angola’s Inter Luanda 1-1. The Algerians will look to make the most of home advantage at the imposing Stade 5 Juillet 1962.

Defending champions TP Mazembe and Tunisian hopefuls Club African both head into home second leg matches needing to overturn 1-0 deficits against Wydad Casablanca and Al Hilal respectively.

Hilal coach Micho Sredojevic reckons his side will retain their slender advantage and advance to the group phase.

“I respect my dear colleague Kaïs Al-Yaâkoubi (Africain’s coach) and his team , I respect the atmosphere which fires up by their crowd, but I believe in hard work and I believe in my players and believe that we shall succeed in Tunisia with enough hard work to obtain a positive result in the away match,” Sredojevic told cafonline.com.

As for Mazembe, the DRC giants’ impressive record in Lubumbashi suggests that they will be able to overturn the deficit, but Wydad are not a team to be underestimated, having eliminated Aduana Stars of Ghana and Nigeria’s Kano Pillars in the two previous rounds. This encounter could well be the pick of the weekend’s games in the CAF Champions League.

CAF Champions League, Second Round fixtures:
(Where applicable, first leg score in parenthesis)

MC Alger v Inter Luanda (1-1)
Diaraf v Esperance (0-5)
Club Africain v Al Hilal (0-1)
TP Mazembe v Wydad Casablanca (0-1)
Al Ahly v ZESCO United (0-0)
Enyimba v Al-Ittihad Tripoli*
Raja Casablanca v ASEC Mimosas*
Cotonsport v Entente Setif**

*Ties to be played over one leg due to political situation in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire respectively.
**First leg postponed to this weekend due to Cotonsport having four players with Cameroon’s U-20 team at the recently completed Africa Youth Championship.