By David Kugonza
There were home wins for KCCA, Gabon’s Mounana, and Tanzania’s Yanga in the first legs of their Confederation Cup play-off ties.
It was a late goal that saw KCCA beat Al Masry of Egypt 1-0 and that was the same scoreline for Tanzania’s Yanga over Mouloudia Alger of Algeria.
Derrick Nsibambi grabbed the only goal of the game for KCCA against Al Masry.
Masry’s coach Hossam Hassan was not happy with the artificial pitch in Uganda.
“We were unlucky not to score in Kampala and also the artificial turf caused my players lots of injury,” the former Egypt striker said. “We shall fight back in Egypt.”
Neither goalscorer Nsibambi nor his coach Mike Mutebi were getting carried away with the win though.
“We still have an important game next week and we should keep focused to win that game as well,” Nisbmabi said.
“We need to go back to the drawing board,” added Mutebi, who felt his side missed several opportunities to score more goals.
In neighbouring Tanzania Young Africans, better known as Yanga, also won 1-0 with Zimbabwean Thabani Kamusoko scoring after 66 minutes against Mouloudia Alger.
Louis Emeka Otchanga scored after 21 minutes for Mounana and Ivorian Sanda Zamble added a second after half-time to put the Gabonese side on course for victory.
But after 66 minutes Asec’s Fabio Dosso grabbed what could prove to be an important away goal for the Ivorians.
In Saturday’s other matches Angola’s Recreativo Libolo drew 1-1 with CNaPS of Madagascar while Bidwest Wits and Egypt’s Smouha played out a goalless draw in South Africa.
Congolese player Julsy Boukama-Kaya scored in the second half for Recreativo but that was cancelled out in injury time by Njiva Rakotoharimalala for CNaPS.
The second legs of the play-offs that pit the losers from the Champions League against winners from the earlier rounds of the Confederation Cup are on the weekend 14-16 April.
Ten more play-off ties were scheduled for Sunday including holders TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo against Algeria’s JS Kabylie.
The overall winners advance to the group stage, starting next month.
