ES Setif warn of another disaster

ES Setif chairman, Hassan Hamar, has warned the Algerian Football Federation from another stadium crowd catastrophe.

Mouloudia Club d'Alger fans had pelted the ES Setif chairman with stones and howled abuseat him after their match on Saturday.

The Setif club lost the match 0-1 on the day 23 of the domestic league.

"The fans insulted me in the match and threw stones at me. I got injured in the process but it's not serious. Mouloudia Club d'Alger chairman Abdel Karim Rayse also got injured too and fans of our team have injures as well," Hamar said.

"What had happened in Omar Hamadi Staduim is not good for Algerian football and we should stop that. We don't want another incident like that of Albert Ebosse or another Port Said disaster in Algeria."

ES Setif occupy second place of the Algerian league table with 38 points, one behind table-toppers, Mouloudia Olympique de Bejaia.

Violence mars Wanderers sponsorship game

Violence led to a premature end of a pre-season friendly game between Be Forward Mighty Wanderers and Silver Strikers at the Kamuzu Stadium, Blantyre on Sunday afternoon.

The game, played in the commercial capital, marked the launch of Japan car dealers Be Forward’s MK70 million ($=MK420) sponsorship for Wanderers.

However, in front of Be Forward officials, anti-Wanderers fans pelted onto the pitch in the 74th minute protesting a red card which referee Waneck Mlenga dished out to Silver midfielder Ndaziona Chatsalira for fouling Cameroonian substitute striker Lionel Asu.

Tempers started boiling in the 73rd minute when Mulenga red carded Silver captain Lucky Malata for fouling Wanderers’ striker Jimmy Zakazaka who won a penalty.

Substitute Cuthbert Sinetre stepped forward to beat Silver goalkeeper Blessings Kameza with a cool shot to the left.

The goal cancelled out the lead Silver had snatched through Blessings Tembo’s wonder direct free-kick which blasted past Wanderers’ goalkeeper Peter Munthali who had, earlier, come in injured Richard Chipuwa.

Power had to fire into the air to disperse the angry crowd. Some three fans linked to Wanderers’ rivals Big Bullets were arrested on suspicion of perpetrating the violence.

Later after the game, Be Forward group sales manager Eiichi Mizuyama officially signed the sponsorship agreement with Wanderers chairperson George Chamangwana.

At the Wanderers Club House, Mizuyama called for discipline among Wanderers fans.

Ofoedu celebrates brace against former team

Nigerian forward, Chikeluba Ofoedu, has maintained his goalscoring form in Turkey’s lower division after scoring a brace in Samsunspor’s 4-0 victory over his former team, Karsiyaka.

Ofoedu switched from Karsiyaka to Samsunspor during the January transfer window and now has nine goals to his credit.

“I celebrated today because I scored two beautiful goals against my former team. After three goals at Karsiyaka, I have scored six goals in eight matches for Samsunspor to take my tally to nine.

“The fact that we secured maximum points on match day is also special,” the former Enugu Rangers forward told supersport.com.

Fondly called Chico in Turkey, Ofoedu is with his third club in Turkey following his initial stint 

Basigi positive about Black Queens

Black Queens head coach Yussif Basigi is keeping calm over his side’s failure to thump Zimbabwe in last Saturday’s All-Africa Games qualifiers.

Ghana only managed to beat the Mighty Warriors 2-1 at home in the first leg of the final qualifier to the 2015 All-Africa Games competition in Congo Brazzaville – a result which has raised apprehension over the team’s chances of qualifying past Zimbabwe.

Ghana were cruising to a 2-0 lead with goals from Agnes Aduako and Samira Suleman only for Emmaculate Msipa to narrow the lead with a fine finish from a free-kick in the second half.

The Black Queens’ not too convincing performance has given their opponents hope of edging Ghana out, come the second leg in Harare on April 4 but coach Basigi remains positive about his team’s chances.

“We went into this match with one sole aim to win and nothing else. It was a very tough game. They were tactically disciplined and maintained their focus throughout the game,” Basigi told reporters.

“Inasmuch as we did not get the result we expected, I still think we can go all the way to Zimbabwe and beat them to qualify.”

“Now that we have achieved that [winning], we need to sit down and look at the positives as well as the negatives and work on them before the second leg.”

“We still have an advantage going into the second leg so it is very possible to beat them at their own backyard. I strongly believe we can qualify for the All-Africa Games,” he ended.

Ghana must simply avoid defeat in Harare in order to book their ticket to the All-Africa Games later in September.

Satellites face Argentina at U20 World Cup

By virtue of winning bronze at the just ended Africa Under-20 Championship, Ghana will join Group B of the Fifa World Cup set for New Zealand.

A brace from the AYC’s player of the tournament, Yaw Yeboah and Clifford Aboagye saw the Black Satellites thump their Mali counterparts 3-1 at the third place play-off of the Senegal tournament on Sunday.

Group B of the 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup has the host city as Wellington and will contain Argentina, Austria, Ghana and Panama.

The World championship, billed to hold between May 30 and June 20, will see Ghana open their campaign against Austria at the Wellington Regional Stadium on May 30.

Coach Sellas Tetteh’s side will then take on powerhouse Argentina three days later before moving out to Auckland to wrap up their group games against Panama at the North Harbour Stadium on June 5.

The Black Satellites won bronze in their last outing at the Turkey World Cup two years ago.

2015 Fifa U20 World Cup Group pairings:

Group A: New Zealand, Ukraine, USA, Myanmar

Group B: Argentina, Panama, Ghana, Austria

Group C: Qatar, Colombia, Portugal, Mali

Group D: Mexico, Senegal, Uruguay, Serbia

Group E: Nigeria, Brazil, Korea DPR, Hungary

Group F: Germany, Fiji, Uzbekistan, Honduras

Barca waste head-to-head advantage

Barcelona's 2-1 win over Real Madrid in Sunday's 'Clasico' may have put them four points clear at the top of La Liga but they will be kicking themselves for not taking a host of second-half chances and grabbing the head-to-head advantage.

If Real manage to draw level on points with their great rivals over the remaining 10 games -- and they have what looks on paper like a slightly easier run-in -- they will snatch the title as they beat Barca 3-1 in Madrid in October.

Head-to-head record is used before goal difference to separate teams with equal points and Real famously pipped Barca to the title in 2006-07 despite having scored 12 fewer goals and conceded seven more.

Any disappointment Barca coach Luis Enrique and the players may be feeling on Monday morning will be outweighed by their joy at seeing off Real at the Nou Camp, thanks to a superb Luis Suarez goal 11 minutes after halftime.

Watched by almost 100,000 fans packed into the giant stadium and millions more around the world, Jeremy Mathieu had put Barca ahead in the 19th minute before Cristiano Ronaldo levelled for Real in the 31st.

"For the moment it is the most important goal I have scored for Barca and it has an extra significance considering who we were playing," a jubilant Suarez, who debuted for the club in October's 'Clasico' after a four-month ban for biting, told reporters.

"There is a long way to go and we know that winning the league is going to be very tough," added the Uruguay striker. "Just like in all the leagues, you never know what can happen if you relax just a little."

Real coach Carlo Ancelotti and his players, meanwhile, will be wondering how they let slip a match they seemed to be well in control of after Ronaldo's leveller.

The Portugal captain was almost completely anonymous in the second half and Real's Wales winger Gareth Bale also made little impact.

"In the end we suffered because of a slight lack of cool heads in our efforts to equalise," Ancelotti told a news conference.

"We played too many long balls without a clear idea," added the Italian. "It was a good hour, and 30 minutes that weren't so good."

F/Eagles never doubted title hope

Flying Eagles goalkeeper, Olorunleke Ojo has said his side never entertained any fear of defeat in the course of Orange African Under-20 Championship final clash against hosts, Senegal.

The Nigerians piped the Young Lions of Teranga 1-0 in the final AYC clash on Sunday at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium, Dakar to claim a record seventh African title.

Ojo said the encounter though somehow tough than they envisaged but they were determined to hang onto their hard earned lead till the end of the keenly contested clash.

“We believed in ourselves that we’ll win the clash against Senegal even at the toughest part of the game.

“We knew right from start that Senegal won’t be same as the ones we defeated 3-1 in the group’s first game.

“And it turned out exactly the way we predicted it as the Senegalese side we confronted in the final were truly difficult.

“We went into the final clash with a mindset that we never met the side previously and it helped us immensely.

“However, we told ourselves that once we take the lead in the clash and unable to score more we’ll defend it with our blood if need be and that was exactly what we did.

“Senegal really improved from the side we played in the group stage and I can say outright that they’re the toughest opponents we encountered at the championship not even Ghana.

“AYC challenge over we’ll continue to work hard until we land the World Cup title in New Zealand,” said the Giwa FC shot stopper to supersport.com.

The newest African champions touched down in Lagos on Monday morning and immediately head off to Abuja.

The AYC semifinalists namely champions, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana and Mali will represent the continent at the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand.

Nigeria will compete for honour in Group E together with Brazil, Hungary and Korea Democratic Peoples Republic.