ALGIERS – CR Belouizdad and MC Algiers, the two Algerian representatives in the African Football Champions League, experienced varying fortunes on the occasion of the third day of the group stage, played on Friday and Saturday.
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If the CRB, poured into group B, was held in check at home by the Sudanese of Al-Hilal (1-1) at the July 5 stadium, the “dean” carried out an excellent operation by going to impose in Thiès (70 km from Dakar) against the Senegalese club Teungueth FC (1-0), thus putting an end to 42 years of famine traveling in African competitions.
Chabab, who had to react after the heavy defeat conceded in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) in front of the South Africans of Mamelodi Sundowns (1-5), completely missed his exit against Al-Hilal.
A poor performance which jeopardizes the chances of Belouizdadis for qualifying for the quarter-finals. Back to the wall, the Chabab is forced to the feat, from its next meeting, scheduled for March 16 in Khartoum against Al-Hilal, to hope to reposition itself and stay in the race.
Read also: Champions League: powerless, Chabab mortgages his chances for the quarterfinals
The defeat of the Congolese TP Mazembe on Saturday at home against Mamelodi Sundowns (1-2), gave a bit of hope to CRB, whose fate is still in its hands.
For its part, the MCA managed to win in Thiès thanks to an achievement by Abdennour Belkheir (13th). A success that allowed the Algerians to climb to second place in the classification of group D (5 pts), behind the leader ES Tunis (7 pts), winner at home of the Egyptian African vice-champions of Zamalek (3-1 ).
The MCA, which remained on a bad streak of seven games without a win in all competitions, managed to get its head out of the water, under the leadership of new coach Abdelkader Amrani, who signed for the occasion his first victory over the Mouloudia bench.
Well positioned to snatch one of the two qualifying places, the Algerian club is obliged to win in the next two matches, scheduled at home against Teungueth FC (March 16) and Zamalek (April 2-3) , to ensure its qualification and avoid calculations.
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