South African clubs Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs booked their places in this season’s CAF Champions League group stage following victories over their respective opponents in the preliminary round second legs on Tuesday.
Sundowns outclassed Botswana’s Jwaneng Galaxy 3-1 at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Pretoria with goals from Kermit Erasmus, Mothobi Mvala and Thapelo Morena. Tebogo Sembowa pulled back a late consolation for the Batswana league champions. As a result, the 2016 champions progressed to the group stage with a 5-1 aggregate win.
Meanwhile, Chiefs edged Angola’s Primeiro de Agosto 1-0 at the Estádio da Cidadela in Luanda with Leonardo Castro scoring the all-important goal with the visitors advancing 1-0 on aggregate.
The two clubs join five-time winners Zamalek of Egypt which was the first club to qualify for this season’s tournament after receiving a walkover against Gazelle of Chad.
Defending champions Al Ahly are scheduled to play AS SONDIEP of Niger while Raja Casablanca of Morocco host Tengueth of Senegal.
In the CAF Confederation Cup, Namungo of Tanzania pulled off a stunning result to knock out Sudan’s Hilal El Obied and advance to the next round.
The Tanzanians came into the match defending a 2-0 lead from the first leg and had the perfect start with a goal in just the second minute to extend their aggregate lead to 3-0. However, three goals in six minutes from the hosts made it 3-1 on the day and 3-3 on aggregate.
Disaster then struck the Sudanese side as they were reduced to 10 men midway through the first half and then conceded a second goal six minutes before the break.
The tie was then put beyond the reach of the hosts five minutes after the restart as the Tanzanians grabbed a third goal to level the tie and put them ahead 5-3 on aggregate, and that is how the match would end.
In other matches, a goal in each half from Rida Bensayah and Juba Oukachi gave JS Kabylie of Algeria a 2-0 win against US Gendarmerie of Niger at the Stade 1 Novembre 1954 in Tizi Ouzou for a 4-1 aggregate win.
Cameroon’s Cotonsport progressed with a 3-0 aggregate win against Green Eagles of Zambia after defeating the latter 1-0 at the Omnisport Roumdé Adjia in Garoua.
Last season’s beaten finalists Pyramids F.C. will be in action later on Tuesday against Al-Ittihad of Libya as will Moteme Pemba of DR Congo against Onze Bravos of Angola.