Yanga (watoto wa jangwani) cruise into next round

A STUNNING solo goal by ace striker Donald Ngoma helped the country’s representative in the 2016 CAF Champions League, Young Africans eliminate Rwanda’s army men APR from the continental biggest club tournament.

Yanga drew 1-1 with APR at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam yesterday to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory, with Ngoma scoring the important equaliser in the 28th minute of the first half.

Hans Van der Pluijm side march into the second stage after completing a job they began so energetically away last Saturday at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Rwanda. Yanga went into the match with a realistic chance of reaching the second round after beating host APR 2-1 in the first leg encounter.

A win saw Yanga booking a date with the winner of the match between Egypt’s Al Ahly and Angola’s Recreativo de Libolo that was played late yesterday in Cairo.

However, it was the visitors who commenced the game with a high tempo and stunned their host just after three minutes, when Fiston Nkinzingabo, gave his side the lead after connecting home Jean Claude Iranzi’s cross.

In the 7th minute, Sibomana Patrick nearly doubled APR’s lead, after defenders Kelvin Yondani and Vincent Bossou mixed up but the striker failed to capitalise on the blunder.

APR appeared to dominate their foes during the early minutes of the first half but squandered few chances they created and as time ticked off the visitors lost steam as their hosts gained momentum, coming strong and putting the visitors under siege.

Ngoma and Amissi Tambwe, who were leading Yanga attacks, wasted chances of putting their side level. A good chance for the hosts came in the 22nd minute when Haruna Niyonzima well calculated cross was nodded by Kamusoko but unfortunately his effort was denied by the woodwork.

Then, Ngoma lifted Yanga’s spirit with a well taken goal and from then it was a mountain task for APR to come back into the game as they needed to score three times.

The Zimbabwean striker dribbled past defender, Rutanga Eric and forced his way into the box before releasing a blockbuster which sailed into the back of the net as goalkeeper, Jean Claude Ndoli failed to stop the shot.

Ngoma was put through by countryman Thabani Kamusoko, who scored the winning goal for Yanga in the first leg match in Kigali. In the second half, both sides came more rejuvenated after making few substitutions with APR introducing Jihadi Bizmana for the goal scorer Nkinzingabo, while Yanga brought in winger, Simon Msuva for Niyonzima and Geoffrey Mwaishuya for Deus Kaseke, who was injured. However, the changes were not productive for both sides as they failed to turn the chances they created into goals.

Meanwhile, another country’s representative in the CAF Confederation Cup, Azam FC are set to complete a double over South African foes Bidvest Wits, when they clash today in a return leg first round game at their Azam Chamazi Complex in Dar es Salaam.

Azam thrashed Bidvest Wits 3-0 in the first leg match held at the Bidvest Stadium in South Africa last Saturday and they are hoping for another victory at home to complete the well job done away.

Salum Abubakar opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a well-hit long range effort, after collecting Wits’ clearance from a corner. Six minutes later Shomari Kapombe doubled the visitors’ lead as he pounced on a careless back-pass from Tebogo Moerane to Jethren Barr.

On the hour mark, Azam captain John Bocco did well to bang home from an acute angle, when poor marking allowed him to be played in at the back-post.