Sports
Ahly, Esperance, Others Fight To Join Enyimba In Semis: CAF Champions League
The three teams to join Nigeria’s Enyimba in the semi-finals of the African Champions League will be decided this weekend with the final round of group matches.
Al Ahly of Egypt know they must beat Group B leaders Esperance of Tunisia by two goals in Cairo today to guarantee a place in the last four.
If the Egyptians do get that win and Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca win in Algeria against Mouloudia Alger, then Esperance would miss out altogether. The Cairo ‘Red Devils’ have won the competition a record six times, but a weary, ageing squad have found the going tough lately with just one win in five group games.
With teams finishing level on points separated by head-to-head records, there are various permutations which mean Esperance, Wydad and Ahly are all capable of topping the table.
The Group B winners will avoid playing the in-form Enyimba in the semi-finals.
Ahly board member Khaled Mortagey told Tidesports source that he was confident his side will advance.
“Hopefully this will happen and if we play the same way we did with the support of 100,000 spectators in the Cairo stadium, which I believe is going to be the case, I think we can do the job,” he said.
Cameroonian Joseph Yannick N’Djeng scored the only goal when Esperance defeated Ahly in Tunis two months ago and the US$960,000 replacement for Nigerian Michael Eneramo is proving a profitable investment.
He scored a hat-trick last weekend in the rout of Mouloudia and this will not have escaped the attention of wily Portuguese coach Manuel Jose, who has led Ahly to four of their six African Champions League titles.
Wydad must hope Mouhssine Iajour, scorer of five goals in the tournament so far this year, can atone for some timid finishing against Ahly when he faces an Algerian defence that is far more effective at home than away.
Mouloudia have conceded 10 goals in their three away games and just two in two matches at home. Former champions, Enyimba cannot be overtaken in Group A, leaving Coton Sport of Cameroon and Al Hilal of Sudan to fight for second place while Raja Casablanca of Morocco will finish bottom.
Coton Sport lead Hilal at the moment with a better head-to-head record and also have the back-up of a better goal difference.
So the 2008 runners-up from Cameroon will go through provided they can match whatever result Hilal achieve at Raja on Sunday in their game away to Enyimba.
That could prove difficult, though, for the Cameroonians as they have already lost at home to Enyimba and must play in Aba, a city where few visiting football teams escape defeat.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor