ACTUALITE |
25.07.2004
Santos 2-0 Canon Yaounde
The group stages of the Confederation Cup are almost finalised, with seven of the last eight teams now known.
The last side to claim a place in the groups will be the winner of the tie between Cameroon side Sable Batie and Orlando Pirates of South Africa, which was abandoned after 50 minutes on Sunday due to bad weather in Douala.
Following the weekend action, Group A of the Confederation Cup will feature Asante Kotoko of Ghana, Enugu Rangers of Nigeria, Petro Atletico of Angola and Al Hilal of Sudan.
Group B awaits the winner of the Sable Batie-Orlando Pirates clash to see who joins Cotonsport of Cameroon, Ghana`s Hearts of Oak and Santos of South Africa.
Santos made it through to the group stage when beating Canon Yaounde of Cameroon 2-0 in Pretoria on Sunday.
Following the 1-1 draw in Yaounde in the first leg, the South Africans go through 3-1 on aggregate.
An early goal from Marawaan Bantam gave Santos the perfect start as he collected a flick-on from Jean-Marc Ithier and struck a sweetly-timed shot from just inside the box in the 23rd minute.
This gave the home side a 2-1 aggregate lead, and Thembile Kanono put the result beyond doubt seven minutes later.
Following a long goal kick by Santos and another flick-on from Ithier, Canon failed to clear and Kanono snuck in between two defenders on the edge of the box to fire home with the outside of his right foot.
"We gave the ball away too often in the second half instead of playing it out of defence," said Santos coach Boebie Solomons in spite of the victory.
"The team were so determined to win they just wanted to keep it out of our penalty area."
The game between Orlando Pirates of South Africa and Cameroon side Sable Batie, which started in Douala on Sunday, had to be postponed.
The match was goalless when rain started to fall in the 38th minute, and although the first half ended without problems a torrential downpour during the half-time break left the pitch unplayable.
Five minutes into the second half, match commissioner Codjo Leopold of Gabon decided the tie could not continue on a pitch containing plenty of surface water and so called the game off.
A pitch inspection will now take place at 0900 GMT on Monday to determine whether it will be possible to play the tie later that day.
There were no such weather problems in Accra, where Ghanaian side Liberty Professionals were seeking to overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit against Sudan`s Al Hilal.
The home side did precisely that, as Stanley Afedzie`s corner kick sailed all the way into the net after half an hour.
The 1-0 victory left the scores level at 1-1, and took the game to penalties.
Yet it was the Sudanese who won through, after goalkeeper Abdalla Elmuz performed brilliantly in a shoot-out which Al Hilal won 2-0 to the dismay of some local fans who threw stones in frustration.
In Nigeria, Enugu Rangers beat APR of Rwanda 3-0 to qualify 3-1 on aggregate.
Johnson Oluwole opened the scoring after just two minutes, and Okechukwu Odita gave Rangers the lead with an 81st-minute penalty before Ugochukwu Okeke added the third in the closing moments.
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Hits: 1 | Source:BBC | |
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