Johannesburg – Two-time winners Wydad Casablanca scored six goals and Jwaneng Galaxy stunned Simba to share the spotlight in CAF Champions League last-32 second-leg qualifying on Sunday.
Moroccan outfit Wydad wasted little time wiping out a 1-0 first-leg deficit at home to Hearts of Oak from Ghana with Tanzanian Simon Msuva netting after just five minutes to level the tie on aggregate.
By half-time the Casablanca club had built a four-goal lead and that stretched to six in the second half before Patrick Razak snatched a late consolation for the Accra side in a 6-1 hammering.
Five Wydad players shared in the goal feast with Msuva bagging a brace for a team seeking a hat-trick of victories in the elite African club competition after lifting the trophy in 1992 and 2017.
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The return match was a rude awakening for Hearts, whose performance in the first encounter last weekend led many Ghanaians to suggest that they should represent the country in World Cup qualifiers.
Wydad advanced 6-2 on aggregate and among the other 15 qualifiers for the group stage will be neighbours and fierce rivals Raja Casablanca, who have been African champions three times.
First-half goals from Mahmoud Benhalib and Oussama Soukhil gave Raja a 2-0 home win over LPRC Oilers from Liberia.
Raja also won the first leg 2-0 and are seeking to end a 22-year wait for a fourth title having last been crowned champions in 1999.
Elsewhere, Botswana club Galaxy stunned 2021 quarter-finalists Simba 3-1 in Tanzania to qualify on away goals having lost 2-0 at home.
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The first leg was a disaster for Jwaneng as they conceded twice within six minutes to lose 2-0 and fell further behind on aggregate when Larry Bwalya scored for Simba in Dar es Salaam.
Trailing 1-0 at half-time in the Tanzanian port city, Galaxy needed to score three unanswered goals to become only the second Botswana club to reach the group stage after Township Rollers.
And that is what the team from a diamond mine town west of Gaborone did, with Wendell Rudath scored twice before Gape Mohutisiwa claimed the tie-winning third goal four minutes from time.
Simba supporters insulted the team, coaches and officials as they left the national stadium after a result that completed a disastrous 2022 CAF club campaign for the east African nation.
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Young Africans were eliminated in the preliminary round of the Champions League, and Azam and Biashara United have exited the second-tier Confederation Cup.
On Saturday, five-time African champions TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo were shock casualties, losing to debutants AmaZulu of South Africa on away goals after a 1-1 draw in Lubumbashi.
Following a goalless first leg, Bongi Ntuli put the Durban side ahead before half-time in the return match and Mazembe did not level through Adam Nzali until the final minute of regular time.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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