Moroccan side RS Berkane overcame an almighty scare to defeat US Gendarmerie 5-3 in their CAF Confederation Cup Group D match at the Stade Municipal de Berkane in Berkane on Sunday.
RS Berkane, winners of the competition in 2020, came into the match as overwhelming favourites and justified that tag racing into a 3-0 lead after just 25 minutes.
Mouad Fekkak scored twice in the 18th and 20th minutes with Charki El Bahri adding a third to give the home side a seemingly healthy lead at halftime.
However, the Nigerien side made two changes at the break which yielded two goals within seven minutes of the restart.
Victorien Adebayor pulled one back in the 49th minute and Hassan Boubacar then stunned the hosts to make it 3-2.
RS Berkane then restored their three-goal advantage with two goals in three minutes midway into the second half through Chadrack Lukombe and Najji Larbi.
Adebayor scored his second goal with nine minutes of normal time left but RS Berkane would see out the rest of the game for a 5-3 win.
The other group game saw Tanzanian giants Simba SC beat ASEC Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire 3-1 in Dar es Salaam.
Both RS Berkane and Simba lead Group A with three points while US Gendarmerie and ASEC Mimosas are third and fourth, respectively.
In Group A, three-time champions CS Sfaxien needed a 97th-minute penalty by Aymen Harzi to defeat Zanaco 1-0 in Sfax.
CS Sfaxien are joint-top of the group with Pyramids F.C. who came from a goal down to beat Al Ahly Tripoli 2-1 in Cairo. Mohamed Al-Tubal scored for the Libyan side but the 2020 runners-up hit back through Islam Issa and Walid El Karti.
South African giants Orlando Pirates are top of Group B following a 2-0 win at home to Algeria’s Saoura. The other teams in the group, Al-Ittihad and Royal Leopards, are yet to play their fixture.
Elsewhere, Njoh Emmanuel scored the only goal of the game eight minutes before halftime as two-time winners TP Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo edged out Congolese side Otoho d’Oyo 1-0 in Lubumbashi in their Group C clash.
Egypt’s Al Masry and Cameroon’s Cotonsport trail TP Mazembe by two points after they both drew 0-0 in their game in Douala.
The second round of group matches is scheduled to take place on February 20.
(Story compiled with assistance from wire reports)
