Asante Kotoko's Isaac Oppong celebrates last gasp goal against RC Kadiogo of Burkina Faso
It has been an exciting weekend around the African continent as the 2022/23 CAF interclub competition campaign has kicked off with every club looking to get off to the best possible start in representing their country in a prestigious club competition and progressing to the next round.
In the Champions League 25 fixtures were scheduled to take place however one fixture was called off as Hawks FC (Gambia) withdrew from their game against Horoya AC (Guinea) due to financial difficulties meaning they couldn’t honour the fixture giving Horoya automatic qualification to the next round.
Asante Kotoko, Ghana’s flag bearers in the competition managed a superb 1-0 away win from home to Rail Club du Kadigo in Burkina Faso giving themselves the upper hand in this tie before the second leg in Kumasi.
The precious away goal being scored by Isaac Opong in the final minutes of the game giving the Kumasi based side much hope of qualifying to the next round.
Tanzanian giants Simba SC and Young Africans managed comfortable 0-2 and 0-4 away wins against Big Bullets (Malawi) and Zalan FC (South Sudan) respectively pathing the way to the next round.
Coton Sport (Cameroon), Petro Atletico (Angola) and Vipers SC (Uganda) all managed comfortable 0-3 wins away from home against Matlama (Lesotho), Black Bulls (Mozambique) and Olympique Real Banjul (Gambia) which all but confirms their presence in the next round of the competition.
St George (Ethiopia) managed a slight advantage with a 2-1 home win against Al Hilal (Sudan) setting up a very interesting return leg in Omdurman on Sunday.
APR FC (Rwanda) also beat debutants US Monastir (Tunisia) 1-0 and a big performance is needed by the Tunisians if they are to progress.
Many ties are still in the balance and another interesting round of fixtures await as all the teams battle to confirm their status in Africa’s biggest club competition.
ALL OTHER FIRST LEG PRELIMARY ROUND RESULTS:
Volcan Club (Comoros) 1-0 La Passe FC (Seychelles) Red Arrows FC (Zambia) 0-1 Primeiro de Agosto (Angola) KMKM Zanzibar (Zanzibar) 0-2 Al Ahly Tripoli (Libya) Cape Town FC (South Africa) 2-0 AS Otoho D’yo (Congo) AS Stade Mandji (Gabon) 2-2 Plateau United (Nigeria) Deportivo Mongomo (Equatorial Guinea) 2-0 Djoliba AC (Mali) ASN Nigelec (Niger) 2-1 SOAR Coyah (Guinea) Bo Rangers FC (Sierra Leone) 0-0 Club Riadhi De Belouizdad (Algeria) CFFA (Madagascar) 2-3 Royal Leopards (Eswatini) Flambeau du Centre FC (Burundi) 1-0 Al Ittihad (Libya Arta Solar 7 (Djibouti) 1-2 Al Merriekh (Sudan) Rivers United FC (Nigeria) 3-0 Watanga FC (Liberia) Asko Kara (Togo) 1-1 FC Nouadhibou (Mauritania) Gaborone United SC (Botswana) 1-0 AS Vita Club (DR Congo) Coton Sport (Benin) 1-2 ASEC Mimosas (Ivory Coast) Casa Sports (Senegal) 1-0 JS Kabylie (Algeria)
By: Abdul Musa - @Pepjunior1. (Abdul Musa - عبدالقادر موسى (@PepJunior1) / Twitter) https://twitter.com/PepJunior1?t=3wPshaQZrc-j0Q5cxalWYA&s=09