Miserable Hearts of Oak bundled out of Confederation Cup by JS Saoura
Ghanaian giants and former CAF Confederation Cup winners, Accra Hearts of Oak have been given double elimination from CAF competitions this season with the Ghanaians suffering a successive failed qualification attempt in Africa this season.
Following their failure to go past Moroccan club, Wydad AC, the Ghanaians were demoted to CAF’s second-tier competition the Confederation Cup, but a pairing with another North African side has spelt the end for the Phobians.
The Ghanaians as in the previous competition won the first leg played in Accra but with two goals, one better than against Wydad. However, that was not enough as their Algerian opponents stepped up their game and put the game level in under 40 minutes of the second half.
Abdeldjalil Saad opened the scoring for the Algerians in the 21st, a goal that could easily have been prevented with good goalkeeping. A second soon followed three minutes to the 40-minute mark when a free-kick was headed in by Oussama Bellatreche.
Hearts went into the break knowing that the game is now wide open and either scoring could go through. They however could not react knowing well that they needed just one goal to make it difficult for their Algerian counterparts. The Algerians however, came from the break the hungrier side and took a commanding lead of the game in the 48th-minute when Oussama Bellatreche added his second of the day to make it 3-2 on aggregate for Saoura.
Late pressure from the Phobians to peg back yielded no results and was completely undone when Hamri Aziz added the 4th goal with two minutes to end regulation time.
The game ended 4-0 in Algeria with the Phobians exiting on a 4-2 aggregate.
By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com
