Nigerians Suffer Confederations Cup Humiliation

Liga Muculmana of Mozambique humiliated Lobi Stars of Nigeria 7-1 this weekend to reach the last-16 round of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Maputo-based Muculmana qualified 8-4 on aggregate after losing the first leg 3-1 three weeks ago and are likely to face Wydad Casablanca of Morocco in the second round.

Former African champions Wydad take a 3-0 lead into the second leg against AS Douanes of Togo in Lome today and the vastly experienced African campaigners are unlikely to crumble like Lobi.

FAR Rabat of Morocco forced a 1-1 draw at Al-Nasr of Libya and Etoile Sahel of Tunisia snatched a 3-2 victory at Onze Createurs of Mali to also secure places in the next round of the second-tier CAF club competition.

Lobi must have believed they were heading for the next round when Chimaobi Nwaogu scored midway through the opening half to cancel the away goal scored by the Mozambicans.

But a brace from Sonito and one from Josimar, who converted a stoppage-time penalty, gave Liga a 3-1 half-time advantage and the clubs were level on goal aggregate.

The second-half red carding of Stars goalkeeper John Lawrence swung the game decisively in favour of Muculmana with Sonito scoring another two goals and Josimar and Pelembe one each.

It was a record winning margin for a Mozambican club in the 10-year competition, eclipsing the 3-0 victory of Ferroviario Maputo over Kenyan visitors Gor Mahia last year.

Benghazi-based Al-Nasr wanted to celebrate the return of CAF club football to Libya by overcoming a 1-0 first leg loss to FAR, and hopes rose when Cameroonian Edet Otobong put them ahead on 71 minutes at the Martyrs of February Stadium.

But Youssef Kaddioui silenced the 10,000 crowd by equalising for FAR and the 2005 Confederation Cup winners advanced 2-1 on aggregate to a showdown with Azam of Tanzania or Barrack Young Controllers II of Liberia.

It was the first CAF club fixture staged in Libya since the popular uprising against Moamer Kadhafi forced clubs to play matches outside the country two years ago and they did not compete in Africa last year.

All but one of the five goals came from penalties as 2006 winners Etoile completed a double over Createurs having won 2-1 at home. Mossab Sassi (two) and Moussa Maazou scored for Etoile and Hamidou Sinayoko netted twice for Onze.