TZW
Mainland champions Yanga were relegated to the Confederation Cup after being knocked out of CAF Champions by Botswana side, Township Rollers last weekend. Yanga were knocked off after battling to a barren draw with hosts Township Rollers in the first round, return leg at the National Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana.
Township Rollers became the first Botswana club to qualify for the lucrative group stage of the Champions League with a 2-1 aggregate scoreline. Township Rollers Serbian Head Coach Nikola Kavazovic is highly ambitious and looking beyond a group place: “We are on our way to becoming a giant, if not in Africa, at least in southern Africa.” The Jangwani Street lads were looking to turn the 2-1 defeat they suffered at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam two weeks ago.
They needed to score two clear goals to go through into the group stage but their efforts failed to pay off. Popa as Township Rollers is well known, dominated the second leg, but with both sides well organised on the day the match ended goalless. That was still enough for Rollers to write a new chapter in the club’s history and put domestic club football on the map.
Botswana clubs have traditionally been CAF pushovers, making the achievements of Rollers by eliminating El Merrikh of Sudan and Yanga a remarkable feat. Despite failing to score, Yanga put up a gallant performance especially in the second half. They have now been relegated to CAF Confederation Cup and will know the side they will face in the continental second tier club championship after a draw today.
The draw will pit the qualified teams from the 1/16th final of the Confederation Cup 2018 against the losers from the 1/16th final of the CAF Champions League 2018 for a place at the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.
After the completion of the first round stage, the sixteen teams that were knocked out from the Champions League will be entered into the Confederation Cup to play against the final sixteen teams in that competition.
The remaining sixteen teams in the Champions League will then be split into four groups of four each. Defending champions Wydad Casablanca of Morocco were comfortable overall winners despite a 2-0 away loss to Williamsville of Ivory Coast and will have a shot at defending the title they won last year while 2016 winners Mamelodi Sundowns, became the first South African side to progress to the group stage of the CAF Champions League for the third successive time when they beat Rwandan outfit Rayon Sports 2-0 on Sunday night and on aggregate.
Also in the hat ahead of the draw for the group stage, will be four new names, KCCA of Uganda, Mbabane Swallows of Swaziland, Township Rollers of Botswana and Horoya of Guinea became the first clubs from their countries to reach the CAF Champions League group stage on Saturday.