Raja Casablanca eased their way into the 2021 CAF Confederation Cup semifinals following a 4-0 win over Orlando Pirates at Stade Mohammed V in Morocco.

Raja Casablanca 4-0 Orlando Pirates (5-1 on aggregate)

The Green Eagles came into the second leg of their quarterfinals with a slight advantage having earned a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg, South Africa but they were dominant on the return leg as they put 4 goals past the South African side.

The always active – Ben Malango – fired Raja in front early on with a sixth-minute bullet header to put them in complete control of the tie.

Zakaria El Wardi made it 2-0 in the 22nd minute, which meant that the Buccaneers’ hopes of qualification started slipping away. Soufiane Rahimi set up the goal with a beautiful assist before getting on the scoresheet himself just seven minutes later to make it 3-0 and put the game to bed in the first half itself.

Malango bagged his second of the game in the 36th minute with a cool finish past Wayne Sandilands to make it 4 first-half goals. The Pirates improved in the second half but could not score and the hosts were just happy to sit back and see the game out.

Enyimba 1-1 Pyramids (2-5 on aggregate)

Pyramids booked their place in the semifinals with a 1-1 draw in Aba, Nigeria thanks to a dominant first-leg showing at home in Cairo.

The Egyptian club won the first leg 4-1 so came in with a comfortable cushion to see out the game and they did just that.

They absorbed everything that the Elephants threw at them as the hosts had 17 shots in the game but only managed to score once as Anayo Iwuala scored the equaliser after the visitors took the lead to cancel out Enyimba’s away goal advantage.

Ibrahim Adel gave Pyramids the lead after 32 minutes before Iwuala made it all-square in the 40th minute.

Pyramids have set up a mouthwatering semifinal clash with Morocco’s Raja Casablanca.

 

Jaraaf 2-1 Coton Sport (2-2 on aggregate, Coton Sport through on away goal rule)

It was a scintillating tie between Senegal’s ASC Jaraaf and Cameroon’s Coton Sport as Jaraaf won the game but were eliminated on away goals after the Cameroonian giants won the first leg 1-0 at home in Garoua.

 

Sibiri Arnaud Sanou put the visitors in the driver’s seat in the second leg as he found the net in the 21st minute in Dakar but Albert Lamane Diene and Pape Abdou N’Diaye gave the home team a massive chance of going through as they scored in the 34th and 55th minute, respectively.

Jaraaf knew that although the scores were level at 2-2 on aggregate, they had to win by a margin of 2 goals since Coton had the away goal advantage. The hosts had 25 shots in the game with 8 finding the target but the away side did enough to hold onto their away goal advantage as the game ended 2-1.

JS Kabylie 1-1 CS Sfaxien (2-1 on aggregate)

Algeria’s JS Kabylie got the job done after a first leg away victory by securing a draw in a tough battle against Tunisian side CS Sfaxien.

In a very cagey affair that had little to no chances, both goals came from the penalty spot in the game. Radha Bensayah opened the scoring for the hosts in the 39th minute to put them firmly in control of the tie as they moved up to 2-0 on aggregate and had an away goal.

 

Sfaxien failed to do anything or test the home side but were gifted a penalty in the 82nd minute to make things nervy for the hosts as another goal for the visitors would have seen them go through on the away goal rule.

However, it was not to be as there was a lack of quality in playing the final ball into the box to create chances.

Kabylie will now face Coton Sport in the other semifinal of the CAF Confederation Cup.

Here is the semifinal line-up for the 2020-21 CAF Confederation Cup:

Pyramids (Egypt) vs Raja Casablanca (Morocco)

JS Kabylie (Algeria) vs Coton Sport (Cameroon)