Football: TOTAL Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League |22 February 2018
Toothless St Louis earn draw, bow out to Young Africans
Captain Bertrand Esther headed in a late equaliser as St Louis played a 1-1 draw against Young Africans who grabbed the all-important ticket to the first round of the TOTAL Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League.
League champions St Louis needed a two-goal margin win in front of their fans at Stad Linite yesterday to harbour the hope of progressing to the next round after going down 0-1 away against 27-time Tanzanian champions Young Africans, or ‘Yanga’ as they are better known, at the National Stadium on Saturday February 3.
Coach Michel Renaud’s 4-3-3 formation did not work quite as expected since they conceded too many corners in the first half as their defence looked shaky and they were also not so creative in attack.
The first half’s best moment fell to the visitors in the 8th minute when Papy Kabamba Tshishimbi’s header was palmed into corner by a diving goalkeeper Michel.
The Young Africans opened the score in the one minute added time at the end of the first half. Hassan Ramadhan, who was dangerous on the right flank with his crosses, sent in another cross which beat the St Louis defence and Ibrahim Ajibu Migomba, one of four Young Africans players unmarked in the home team’s penalty area, buried the ball into the net past a hapless goalkeeper Michel.
It was a hard blow for St Louis who were surely thinking of keeping a clean sheet going into half-time, but when they returned from the breather they had to go in search of three goals to overcome the 0-2 aggregate score.
A tough task it proved to be as the Seychelles champions huffed and puffed as they tried to take the fight to the Tanzanians who were more composed on the ball.
But still St Louis looked a little brighter in attack in the second half with some half chances and Karl Hall missed a good opportunity to equalise on the night when he bundled the ball over the crossbar after Young Tanzanians goalkeeper Ramadhani Kabwili had spilled a cross in the 75th minute.
With four minutes added on, St Louis still pressed for a goal and they did find the back of the net with 92 minutes on the clock when substitute Roddy Melanie played a cross inside the Young Tanzanians’ penalty area and captain Esther rose at the back post to head the ball over goalkeeper Kabwili and into the net to set up a frantic finish.
With the score 1-1 on the night and St Louis trailing 1-2 on aggregate score, Malagasy referee Andofetra Rakotojaona had to calm the players nerves by showing two yellow cards to St Louis players late on.
In the end it proved to be too little too late for St Louis as they were bundled out of the competition on a 1-2 aggregate score.
This is the second time St Louis are eliminated by Young Africans in Africa’s most important club competition. This first time was in the 1992 in the old African Champions Cup on a 2-7 aggregate score (1-4 away and 1-3 at Stad Popiler).
Young Africans will play the winners between Botswana’s Township Rollers and Sudan’s giants Al Merreikh.
What they said after the match
St Louis coach Michel Renaud: “The players gave their all, but it was not enough to get us through to the next round. This is only our second competitive game this year whereas Young Africans have been competitive for a while. Despite losing the first leg match, we had our chances today (yesterday) but when we conceded the goal it made our task even much harder”.
Young Africans assistant coach Nsajigua Shadrack: “The first half was good and in the second half it was 50-50. We lost concentration in the final minutes and they equalised. We are lucky we have our home goal and we are going forward. It was a good and competitive game. St Louis’ fighting spirit was there”.
G. G.