Cotonsport continued their CAF Confederation Cup bounce back from an opening match defeat with a second consecutive win on Saturday, defeating NAPSA Stars 1-0 on the road in Lusaka. The Cameroonian club leap over JS Kabylie and CAFCC defending champions RS Berkane into first place in Group B with six points while NAPSA Stars remain at the bottom with one point. Kabylie and Berkane played out a scoreless draw in the day’s other game to take up the second and third spots.
Taking their opportunities clinically against Berkane in the previous win, Cotonsport rode another slick finish early on to obtain three points in Zambia. After weathering a few speculative efforts from the hosts, a corner-kick in the 16th minute created the winner. NAPSA failed to clear and the ball rolled around in a scramble, where Abdouraman Daman calmly picked up the ball and maneuvered to sneak a clever finish past Pensioners goalkeeper Rabson Muchelenganga. The hosts put up a generally underwhelming performance and now have work to do following the home loss.
Algerian side JS Kabylie will be satisfied to come out of Berkane with a point considering a red card left them down a player for the final fifteen minutes. Another poor attacking performance was the result of defending champions Berkane continuing to lack ideas in the final third, with their usual source of set piece goals drying up as well. One of right-back Omar Namsaoui’s trademark deliveries from a free-kick found Hamdi Laachir for RSB’s best chance in the second half, but Laachir’s header went agonizingly wide, giving a stubborn JSS side a deserved road point.
Highlights from both games are below.
NAPSA Stars 0-1 Cotonsport
RS Berkane 0-0 JS Kabylie
