South African sides failed to score and are all in danger of missing out on the group phase of the African Confederation Cup after Wednesday’s third round, first leg ties.

Cape Town City were held to a goalless draw at home against USM Alger at the Cape Town Stadium in Wednesday and must now win away in north Africa next week if they are to progress to the next stage in February.

City had to drop down into the competition after a heavy second round loss in the African Champions League to the Angolan side Petro Atletico.

Royal AM were beaten 2-0 in Lubumbashi by five-time African champions TP Mazembe Englebert of the Democratic Republic of Congo while Marumo Gallants lost away in Libya.

Ernst Luzolo and the Zambian veteran Rainford Kalaba scored second half goals for Mazembe, who now have a handy lead to take to Durban for next Wednesday’s return at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Royal AM held out for almost an hour before Luzolo scored first, picking up a rebound, followed by a second goal from Kalaba 15 minutes later.

Gallants were beaten 1-0 away by Al Ahli Tripoli where Libya international Anis Salto scored the only goal of the game in the first minute of the game.

It might have spelt the start of an avalanche of goals but Gallants held out for the rest of the game, which was played in Libya’s second city Benghazi.

The Benina Martyrs Stadium, which has an artificial turf, is only venue in the north African country approved for use by the Confederation of African Football but is more than 1000km away for Al Ahli to travel from their base in the capital Tripoli.

They will now head south, on an even longer journey, for the return leg, which will be at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Wednesday and the winners advance to the group phase, which gets under way in February.

Photo by Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix