Gor Mahia bank on 12th man to seal group stage slot

Gor Mahia and Tusker will both be in action on Sunday in Caf Confederation Cup group stage play-offs second leg fixtures.

Record Kenyan champions Gor host AS Otoho d’Oyo of Republic of Congo at Nyayo National Stadium from 3pm trailing by one goal while Tusker are away to Tunisian side CS Sfaxien from 8pm with the match-up evenly balanced at 0-0.

K’Ogalo will be itching for revenge against Otoho who beat them 1-0 at the Alphonse Massemba-Debat Stadium in Brazzaville a week ago.

The fixture was overshadowed by incidents away from the playing pitch with two Gor players, striker Jules Ulimwengu and midfielder John Ochieng’ missing the game after testing positive for coronavirus. Gor disputed the results and a second test returned negative results.

The duo will be available for Sunday’s encounter. Otoho arrived in Nairobi on Saturday morning, a 47-strong tour party.

They will likely come face to face with a 10,000-filled, partisan crowd at Nyayo on Sunday afternoon.

Buoyed by Caf’s clearance for the game to be attended by a maximum of 10,000 fans, Gor Mahia coach Mark Harrison has called on the Green Army  to turn out in large numbers to cheer them to victory.

“Having our fans back on the pitch is an added advantage in this game which we have no choice but to win and with a huge margin. I know the love the fans have for this club and I’m optimistic we will turn tables on our opponents,” said Harrison.

Can Gor do the job in Nairobi? Yes. The team will be highly motivated to put an end to their shaky home record in Africa.

Last season the club lost 1-0 to Napsa at Nyayo Stadium that led to their exit from Caf Confederation Cup at the play-offs stage 3-2 on aggregate and the hands of the Zambian side.

After a 1-1 draw against DC Motema Pembe at home in the 2019/20 season, Gor fell 2-1 away in DR Congo at the same stage of the competition. 

The same fate befell K’Ogalo in the 2018/19 season in the quarter-final stage of the Confed Cup when they lost 2-0 to RS Berkane at home and 5-1 away. However Gor beat Petro de Luanda of Angola, Zamalek SC of Egypt and Hussein Dey of Algeria in their home matches.

The last time Gor won at home in African campaigns was in the Champions League preliminary round last season when they came from behind to beat APR of Rwanda 3-1 at Nyayo National Stadium in December 6,2020.

Despite the unimpressive record in Confederation Cup, Gor will be banking on the club top scorer Benson Omalla, who has five goals to his name this season to turn the tide.

Burundian attacker Jules Ulimwengu, who has so far scored twice this season, will also be a man to watch. AS Otoho d’Oyo will have reasons to be worried on Sunday.

They have never won any Caf match away. They will look to Roland Okouri who scored the lone goal in the first leg, to break the home team’s resistance.

Otoho drew 2-2 at home against Petro de Luanda in the before falling 2-0 away in this season’s Champions League first round.

Meanwhile, Tusker coach Robert Matano faces an uphill task to eliminate CS Sfaxien. The brewers need a win or a scoring draw at the Taieb Mhiri Stadium to advance to the group stage of the competition.

Matano will also be looking to break the jinx of failing to beat a North African team in his vast coaching career. 

“We are focusing on the game which is a must-win if we are to have hopes of being in the group stages. We want to break that jinx and we will give it our all to see to it that we can win,” said midfielder Jackson Macharia. 

Tusker exited the Caf Champions league following a huge 5-0 aggregate loss to Zamalek SC of Egypt in the first round and were relegated to Caf Confederation Cup.