Napsa Stars stunned CAF Confederation Cup holders RS Berkane 1-0 in a Group B match played at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Wednesday night.
The win saw Coton Sport and JS Kabylie storm the last eight as the top two teams in the group, while the Moroccan giants Berkane, who remained third on the table, are eliminated from the competition together with Napsa.
Berkane were the first to threaten with attacker Djbril Quiattara forcing a brilliant diving save from Shaban Odhoji in the third minute after the Napsa backline was caught napping in the danger area.
Napsa got the wake-up call and launched an attack of their own which could have resulted in the opening goal after fourteen minutes but Jimmy Mukeya forgot the basics of scoring.
With enough space inside the box, Mukeya drilled his trademark powerful shot into the cross-bar with Berkane goalkeeper Hamza Akbi after he intercepted a misplaced pass by defender Mohamed Aziz
Napsa kept on going forward and attacking with the likes of Dickson Chapa, Doisy Soko and Jacob Ngulube but the Berkane defence of Mohamed Aziz, Ismail Mokadem and Omar Namsaoui stood firm.
It was not all about the Pensioners as Bekane also had notable moments on the attack mostly through Zakaria Hadraf, Youssef Zghoudi, the tricky Labri Naji and Traore in the opening stages of second stanza.
Napsa Stars opened the scoring in the 53rd minute when Daisy Soko fired a powerful shot past Berkane custodian Hamza Akbi.
Berkane could have equalised with a rare attack in the game after the 70th minute, as Hadraf saw his header palmed away by Odhoji.
Zaid Krouch went close with a right-footed shot from just outside the box that sailed just wide of Odhoji ‘s upright.
The Pensioners sat quite deep in the latter stages of the second half, with Berkane pushing for an equaliser.
However, Mohamed Fathi’s charges managed to hold out until the final whistle to claim three points.
