Sfaxien reach quarters in style

Tunisian giants, CS Sfaxien comfortably sealed their passage to the quarters with a 3-1 away win over Mbabane Swallows in a Group B match at a half filled Somhlolo National Stadium on Sunday.

By the half-hour mark, the host Swallows were two goals down after Ben Al Houssem and Firas Chaouat strikes in 22nd and 29th minutes respectively.

In actual fact danger was all written in the jaded Swazi as they almost found themselves behind just seconds into the tie but thanks must go to goalkeeper Sandile Ginindza who smothered a Heni Amamou scorcher to safety leaving him requiring medical attention.

With fatigue written all over Swallows, any effort to fight back required a lot more and the football gods smiled upon them on the stroke of half time when Tshishimbi Papy Kabamba tapped home a Sanele Mkhweli searching cross from the left.

But substitute Walid Karoui was to bag the victory in the 87th minute sapping away any kilojoules of energy left in the home team ejecting dejected fans towards the exit, with captain, Tony Tsabedze crashing his optional time penalty onto the upright a real farewell from the unbeaten home run.

Three-time winners, Sfaxien join run away leaders, MC Alger, who beat Platinum Stars 2-0 last Friday into the last eight.

Swallows coach Thabo Koki Vilakati was honourable in defeat congratulating CS Sfaxien and the referees.

“Let me congratulate CS Sfaxien for the victory. The best team of the day won and I must say even the officiating was 100 per cent. Now that we are out, we take with us the lessons from this edition to next year. We will be back next year,” said Vilakati.

On the CS Sfaxien coach, Jose da Mota, who took over reins of the team barely a week ago paid tribute to his players.

“We came here and we knew we needed early goals to unsettle them which my players executed that well with those two goals. The third goal finished them off. I respect them (Swallows) they are not a bad team," said Mota.

Fixtures

Group A

02.07.2017    Kampala        KCCA (Uganda) 3-1 FUS Rabat (Morocco)

02.07.2017    Port Harcourt Rivers United (Nigeria) 0-2 Club Africain (Tunisia)

Group B

30.06.2017    Algiers           MC Alger (Algeria) 2-0 Platinum Stars (South Africa)

02.07.2017    Lobamba       Mbabane Swallows (Swaziland) 1-3 CS Sfaxien (Tunisia)

Group C

30.06.2017    Alexandria     Smouha (Egypt) 1-1 Zesco (Zambia)

01.07.2017    El Obeid         Hilal El Obeid (Sudan) 2-0 Recreativo do Libolo (Angola)

Group D

01.07.2017    Conakry         Horoya (Guinea) 0-0 Supersport (South Africa)

02.07.2017    Libreville        CF Mounana (Gabon) 0-1 TP Mazembe (DR Congo)