Simba, Yanga on revenge missions in CAF tourneys

Dar es Salaam. Football heavyweights in the country Simba and Young Africans (Yanga) will have to stretch their muscles in order to qualify for the semifinals of the continental club championships.

Simba, who feature in the CAF Champions League, will meet Wydad Club Athletic of Morocco in the knockout stage while Yanga will face Rivers United of Nigeria in the quarterfinal of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Simba will be at the home venue between April 21 and 22 hosting the defending champions. The return leg will be held in Casablanca between April 28 and 29.

The winners of the match will meet the winners between Chabab Belouizdad of Algeria and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns.

Another matches in the CAF Champions League are Al Ahly against Raja Club Athletic and JS Kabylie against Esperance de Tunis.

The winners between Kabylie and Esperance will face the winners between Al Ahly and Raja Club Athletic. The first legs will be held between May 12 and 13 while the return legs between May 19 and 20.

In the CAf Confederation Cup, the winners between Rivers and Yanga will play against the winners between Pyramids of Egypt and Marumo Gallants of South Africa.

The Rivers United-Yanga first leg will be played on April 23 and the second leg on April 30. The semifinal first leg will be played on May 14 while the second leg on May 21.

Simba vs Wydad Club Athletic

Apart from seeking revenge of a 3-0 loss to Wydad Club Athletic on May 28, 2011, the Tanzanian giants will likely be out to write another record in the competition by eliminating the defending champions.

Simba played against Wydad in the special CAF Champions League playoff following the elimination of Javier Besala Bukungu, who featured for the TP Mazembe encounter against Simba contrary to the CAF rules and regulations.

Bukungu joined TP Mazembe from Esperance of Tunisia, but his registration was pre-mature and Simba, who were eliminated by TP Mazembe by 3-1, were awarded victory and required to face Wydad at a neutral venue. The match was played in Cairo and Simba exited.

In 2003, Simba managed to eliminate Zamalek of Egypt in away at the Cairo International Stadium.

Simba won 1-0 at the Uhuru Stadium and later Zamalek won 1-0 on June 1 in 2003 on penalties, Simba won 3-2, thanks to Juma Kaseja’s commendable save in the encounter.

Wydad are the defending champions of the competition and are now seeking the fourth title. The Moroccan giants won the title in 1992, 2017 and the 2021/2022 last edition.

The team played in the competition’s finals in 2011 and 2018/2019 while qualifying for the semifinals in 2016, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. In 2018, Waydad won the CAF super Cup title.

Basically, Simba are facing a tough assignment against the club that have won Morocco’s Premier League (Batola) title 22 times. Apart from the 2003 success, in 2011, Simba qualified for the CAF special playoff while in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 qualified for the quarterfinals.

Simba head coach Roberto Oliveira alias Robertinho said they are ready to face the defending champions and target to do well in the encounter.

“We are ready to face any opponents in the competition. We have already sharpened our team and believe we will do our best to meet our target,” said Robertinho.

Yanga vs Rivers United

Yanga will be seeking revenge against Rivers United as in the 2021 CAF Champions League matches, the Jangwani Street giants were eliminated by Rivers United on 2-0 goal aggregates in the preliminary round. In the first match, Yanga lost 1-0 at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium and in the return leg they also lost with the same margin.

However, Yanga have put up an impressive performance recently to the extent of managing to finish at the top of the group D standings.

The improved side of Jangwani Street managed to win over one of the African giants in the game, TP Mazembe, who lost both matches. They won 3-1 at the home venue and later 1-0 in Lubumbashi.

In the group, Yanga lost 2-0, the only one match to concede against Tunisian side US Monastir, but they did well in their three away encounters. They recorded a 1-1 draw against Real Bamako and later won 1-0 over TP Mazembe.

Yanga assistant head coach Cedric Kaze said they are taking the encounter seriously and they do not underestimate their opponents.

“Our target is to do well and we respect all the teams that have qualified for the stage. We will make sure we do well,” insisted Kaze.

Kaze expressed that they will prepare the team accordingly, saying that Rivers United have changed and are not the same team they met in 2021.

Rivers United are currently placed second in Nigeria’s top flight league with 19 points from 10 matches.

The Nigerian side have improved to outplace famous teams in their country such as Enyimba, Kwara United and others to win title in 2021/2022.

Since their establishment in 2016, Rivers United managed to qualify for the group stage of the CAF Champions League twice and in the 2017 season they reached the first round before qualifying for the second round in the 2022 edition.

In the CAF Confederation Cup, Rivers managed to enter the group stage in 2017 before qualifying for playoffs in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 seasons respectively.