Rwanda’s football league champions APR bowed out of this year’s African Champions League after losing to El Zamalek 0-2 in the second leg, first round in Cairo, Egypt over the weekend. Zamalek reach the Caf Champions League round with a 4-1 aggregate. The military side who needed to overturn a 2-1 deficit could not overcome home side Zamalek as they conceded the two goals in the second half of the game. Zamalek beat Rwandan champions APR 2-0 in Cairo thanks to goals to Maohomud Fathallah and Sherif Ashraf to go through 4-1 on aggregate. Zamalek will face the Ivory Coast champions Africa Sport in the second round of the competition. Africa Sport beat Benin’s Tonnere 3-0 over the weekend to qualify on a 3-0 aggregates. Other Cecafa member states clubs which bowed out of the African champions’ league competition include; Uganda Revenue Authority who failed to overturn the 0-2 deficit in Zambia against Zesco thus ending the game in a goalless draw. Tanzania Vodacom champions Simba booked their second round clash against Nigeria’s Enyimba after qualifying on a 1-4 on aggregates over Ethiopia’s Awassa City. Kenya’s Tusker bowed out of the competition due to Caf bans thus giving Eritrea’s Al Tahrir a chance of testing second round football against former champions, Al Ahli of Egypt. Burundi’s Vital’O away game to Cotonsport of Cameroon which was due over the weekend was shifted to yet an unknown date due to clashes in Cameroon. Meanwhile, two former holders Hearts of Oak of Ghana and Morocco’s FAR Rabat were eliminated after the first round of matches in the Champions League. The 2001 champions from Accra were knocked out of the competition by Gabonese side FC 105 Libreville on a 4-3 aggregate on Sunday. Hearts needed to overturn a 3-0 deficit but could only manage a 3-1 win in the second leg game at home. FAR Rabat also suffered shock elimination from the tournament at the hands of little-known Sporting Praia of Cape Verde on Saturday. The 1985 champions were eliminated 5-4 on penalties after the tie finished 3-3 on aggregate in Praia. Sporting Praia won the second-leg game 3-0 thanks to a brace by Jwaw Tegana, overturning the first leg deficit. Elsewhere, South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns thrashed visiting Miembeni of Zanzibar 4-0 in their second leg game to qualify on 5-0 on aggregate. Entente Setif of Algeria beat ASC SNIM of Mauritania 2-0 in the second leg of their game to complete a 7-1 aggregate win. In the Confederation Cup, Rwanda’s Rayon Sport booked a second round tie against last year’s losing finalists El Merreikh of Sudan after eliminating Ethiopia’s Harar Beer 5-4 on penalties. Uganda’s Express qualified to the second round of the competition after seeing off Burundi’s Inter Stars on 4-3 penalties whereas Tanzania’s Yanga FC won 2-1 on aggregates over AS Dema of Madagascar. Cecafa member states clubs which will feature in the second round of the champions league are Al Tahrir of Eritrea and Simba Fc of Tanzania while, Rayon Sport, Express and Yanga will take part in the Confederation Cup.Ends
