Kenyan champions Tusker FC progressed to the second preliminary round of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League after beating Arta Solar 7 of Djibouti 3-0 on Saturday at Nyayo National Stadium to qualify winning 4-1 on aggregate.
The victory earned them a second preliminary round ticket where they will take on Egyptian giants Zamalek.
Goals from new acquisitions Shami Kibwana and Deogratious Ojok in between Ibrahim Joshua’s second goal in as many matches earned The Brewers a ticket to the next stage of the competition against a star-studded Arta.
“I am really happy with how we played. We managed to contain them well because they are a good team. We created so many scoring chances and we should have scored even five. But I am happy with what we got today because we created chances and scored,” said head coach Robert Matano.
Tusker had a brilliant start to the match and broke the deadlock in the seventh minute when Kibwana scored from the penalty spot after Joshua was brought down in the area by Alex Song.
Despite conceding early, just like they did in the first leg at home, Arta dug in the effort and thought they had scored an equalizer when former Senegalese international Diafra Sakho had the ball inside the net but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Having been warned of a possible reciprocation of the first leg when Arta equalized immediately after conceding, Tusker sought to make amends. They were 2-0 up after 23 minutes when Tanzanian Joshua who scored in the first leg angled a brilliant header off a Jackson Macharia cross.
In the second period the visitors came back revitalised and tried to pin Tusker to their half. However, the home side were unshaken. In the 57th minute, Daniel Sakari made some great work on the right to deliver in a cross, but Boniface Muchir could not keep his shot on target.
Barely a minute after coming on for Joshua, Ugandan Ojok made it 3-0 with a low effort into the net after Boniface Muchiri miscued his control off another of Macharia’s deliveries.
Tusker were forced to play the last seven minutes of the game with 10 men after substitute Teddy Osok was stretchered off injured just a minute after coming on. Tusker couldn’t make another change as they had exhausted their substitute quota.
Source: cafonline.com