Orlando Pirates crashed out of the Caf Champions League following a 5-4 defeat on penalties against Jwaneng Galaxy at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.
Galaxy beat Orlando Pirates, a team from South Africa and a former African champion, 5-4 on penalties after losing the second leg of a last-32 tie, which was played in Soweto, 1-0.
The title-holders, Al Ahly, beat Saint George of Ethiopia 4-0 in Cairo, and Mostafa Fathy scored four goals as Pyramids beat APR of Rwanda 6-1 to win the aggregate games easily.
Defender Benson Mangolo won the game for Galaxy when he scored the fifth penalty for the away team. Earlier, 18-year-old Relebohile Mofokeng had been stopped by teammate Goitseone Phoko.
Pirates took a risk by putting Ghana custodian Richard Ofori in for Sipho Chaine in extra time. They thought that he could help them win the penalty shootout after the game ended 1-1 on aggregate.
But the move didn’t work because Galaxy made all five kicks to move on to the group stage on November 24 and win at least €660,000 (about $700,000).
After losing 1-0 in Botswana two weeks ago, Pirates dominated the return match, even though Galaxy had a lot of players on the pitch to defend.
The Buccaneers brought back veteran forward Kermit Erasmus, but he didn’t do much against the Galaxy’s defensive wall of red-shirted players.
After 66 minutes, Pirates’ pressure paid off when a substitute, Evidence Makgopa, poked the ball into the net after a scramble in front of the goal.
In extra time, the home team almost scored a second goal and won the game. Patrick Maswanganyi was about to shoot from close range when he was stopped by a great sliding tackle.
Ahly is trying to win a record-setting 12th Champions League title. Last weekend, they beat Saint George 3-0 in the first leg, and this weekend, they beat them by an even bigger margin.
Mohamed “Afsha” Magdy and Mahmoud Kahraba each scored twice for Ahly. Since Saint George’s pitch wasn’t up to international standards, they had to play twice in Cairo, which helped Ahly win.
Ahly will play in the group stage for the ninth time in a row. They have been to six of the last eight Champions League finals and won three of them.
Fathy was the first player in the competition this year to score four goals in a game. He beat Ali Shabani Valentin of Burundi, who scored a hat trick in the previous qualifying round.
Walid el Karti and Mohamed Chibi also scored for Pyramids, which was playing in its first Champions League game. Victor Mbaoma of Nigeria scored a late penalty for APR. In Kigali, the first leg ended in a tie.
Photo by Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
