Three Zambian representatives in Continental football were in action on Saturday with two recording wins while one suffered a shock defeat at home.
Green Eagles hosted South African PSL giants Orlando Pirates in the first leg of their CAF Champions League preliminary round tie at Nkoloma Stadium. The Kawale Boys came into the match as underdogs as they were making their debut in the topmost Club competition on the continent while the Buccaneers are seasoned campaigners.
Eagles were missing two key players in captain Ceasor Hakaluba and defensive kingpin Boniface Sunzu while the Sea Robbers were without South Africa national team attacking midfielder Thembikosi Lorch. The trio were all sidelined due to injuries.
It was, however, the hosts who left the Stadium the happier of the two thanks to a Spencer Sautu second-half strike. Nkoloma stadium was filled to capacity with many fans having to return home because the Stadium was too small for the huge crowd that turned up and The Choma based side did not disappoint recording a hard-fought one-nil win.
☠ FT || @GreenEaglesFC4 1 – 0 @orlandopirates
The solitary goal at the start of the 2nd half was enough to see the home side through to the win. It’s back to the drawing board now for the Bucs who go into the 2nd leg on the backfoot
⚫⚪🔴⭐#CAFCL #Matchday#OnceAlways pic.twitter.com/p2Qn3FYRYu— Orlando Pirates FC (@orlandopirates) August 10, 2019
In Eswatini, Zesco United travelled to Eswatini for their first leg of the CAF Champions League preliminary round tie against Green Mamba. The reigning Zambia Superleague Champions made easy work of the Eswatini side beating them by two goals to nil.
Ugandan striker Umaru Kasumba who made his debut scored the opener early the first half to open his account for the Ndola giants while Midfield ace John Ching’andu doubled the lead to seal a comfortable two-nil win.
Full time scores:
Green Mamba 0-2 Zesco united
⚽ Kasumba Umaru 7'
⚽ John Chingandu 53'#WeAreUnited#ZegaMambo#TeamYaziko#CAFCL— Zesco United FC (@ZescoUnitedFC) August 10, 2019
At Levy Mwanawasa Stadium, Buildcon hosted Young Buffaloes of Eswatini in their first-ever Continental football match. Young Buffaloes came to Zambia searching for their first win having suffered defeats in their previous two visits.
The Eswatini side was handed a humiliating five-nil defeat in 2011 by Zesco United while Eagles beat them two nil last year in Choma. This time around their trip finally yielded results as they managed a shock one-nil win over Buildcon thanks to a Mpendulo Dlamini first-half strike.
Zesco United will be at home in the reverse fixture and are expected to seal their passage to the next round while Buildcon has an uphill battle away in Eswatini to try and turn the tables around.
Eagles have the advantage heading into the second leg but will need to produce another fine performance to see off the Buccaneers at Orlando Stadium.
The other representative, Sensational Zanaco are on bye and will join the Competition in the next round.
Ok what happened to Buildcon? was it a case of underrating the opponent? this was an embarrassing defeat for Buildcon.
Congrats to Zega for continuing to fly the Zambian flag high. Well done!!
The biggest congratulations though should go to CAF games debutants Green Eagles…WOW!!! you beat Pirates!!! CONGRATS GUYS!!!
Zamfoot small correction, Thembikosi Lorch is a striker, an out and out top man, not an attacking midfielder.
Big up to Green Eagles…that was not a small feat. And yes people will say Pirates underrated you so you should go and prove to everyone that it wasn’t by continuing with impressive performances like this. I’m a big buccaneer fan by the way but for this one I had your back guys…well done!