Enyimba and Orlando Pirates secured the last two quarterfinal spots in the 2020-21 CAF Confederation Cup as the group stage was wrapped up on Thursday.
The Buccaneers needed only a draw in Aba to secure the top spot in their group and were on course for doing just that, as the goalless game went all the way deep into injury time before the home side scored in the dying moments, in a must-win game, through Cyril Olisema for a massive 1-0 win to take the Nigerians through alongside their opponents.
The result was enough to help Enyimba leapfrog the South African side to the top of the group, level on points with the Pirates but ranked above basis the head-to-head rule.
Luckily for the Buccaneers, Group A’s other game saw ES Setif win 1-0 at home against Al-Ahly Benghazi, which meant that the Liberian side could not end up moving onto 10 points that would have seen them secure the top spot in the group. In fact, the loss meant that they finished last in Group A. This is the amazing thing about football!
Setif’s win took the Algerians to 8 points, into 3rd place and unfortunately for them, they needed Enyimba to lose to Orlando but it was not to be.
It was the most gripping group of this season’s Confederation Cup and it came down to literally the last kick of the ball as Olisema snatched the victory for the People’s Elephant.
The six matches from Groups B, C and D were all dead rubbers, with the two qualifiers from each having already been decided prior to Matchday 6.
Here is a summary of all the results from the final matchday of the competition.
Group A
Enyimba (Nigeria) 1-0 Orlando Pirates (South Africa)
ES Setif (Algeria) 1-0 Al-Ahly Benghazi (Libya)
Group B
RS Berkane (Morocco) 2-1 Coton Sport (Cameroon)
JS Kabylie (Algeria) 2-1 NAPSA Stars (Zambia)
Group C
Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia) 2-1 Salitas (Burkina Faso)
CS Sfaxien (Tunisia) 0-0 ASC Jaraaf (Senegal)
Group D
Raja Casablanca (Morocco) 2-0 Nkana FC (Zambia)
Pyramids FC (Egypt) 1-0 Namungo (Tanzania)
Here are how the groups ended up. The top 2 teams from each group have qualified for the knockout stages of the CAF CC.
Group A
- Enyimba – 9 points
- Orlando Pirates – 9 points
- ES Setif – 8 points
- Al-Ahly Benghazi – 7 points
Group B
- JS Kabylie – 12 points
- Coton Sport – 9 points
- RS Berkane – 8 points
- NAPSA Stars – 4 points
Group C
- ASC Jaraaf – 11 points
- CS Sfaxien – 10 points
- Etoile du Sahel – 8 points
- Salitas – 3 points
Group D
- Raja Casablanca – 18 points
- Pyramids – 12 points
- Nkana – 6 points
- Namungo – 0 points
Here are the quarterfinalists in the 2 pools. Teams in the same pool cannot play each other and neither can teams who were in the same group at this stage.
Pool 1 – Enyimba, JS Kabylie, Jaraaf, Raja Casablanca
Pool 2 – Pyramids, CS Sfaxien, Coton Sport, Orlando Pirates
The quarterfinals will see each club from a different country. The countries being represented by the clubs are Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.
We will crown a new champion in this season’s CAF Confederation Cup as defending champions RS Berkane were eliminated in the group stage as they finished third in Group B behind JS Kabylie and Coton Sport.
