Tusker FC were made to sweat as they held on to a 1-1 draw against AS Arta Solar 7 in their 2021/2022 CAF Champions League preliminary round first-leg tie played at the Hassan Gouled Stadium in Djibouti City on Saturday.
Arta attempted to catch Tusker off guard in the opening exchanges through a mistimed ball that landed at the feet of Alain Traore, who wasn’t able to punish the visitors.
Another sight to goal presented itself to a certain Alex Song right on the 10th minute, but the diminutive midfielder again failed to trouble Tusker goalkeeper Emery Mvuyekure.
Tusker were finally up and running on the 14th minute when Joshua Ibrahim sent Carol Kameni the wrong way to make it 1-0.
However, the Brewers’ didn’t last long as they expected, as the ever-threatening Tarore leveled matters just a minute later from a free-kick that went past Emery Mvuyekure .
Jackson Macharia went close to giving the Urban Warriors the lead in the 36th minute, as he attempted to lob Kameni from the halfway line, however his effort sailed just over the mark.
That proved to be the last bit of goal-mouth action, as the sides entered the halftime break with the score level at 1-1.
Joshua Ibrahim seemed to be Arta’s main threat for most of the encounter and he nearly doubled his tally in the 57th when he forced Kameni into a fine save.
Arta Solar pushed for a winning goal in the final 20 minutes, as they struck the crossbar, while Diafra Sakho forced Emery Mvuyekure into a good stop.
Kameni came to Arta’s rescue in the 77th minute, as the shot-stopper produced a good save to keep out Boniface Muchiri’s strike from distance.
Tusker managed the rest of the encounter successfully well to start African Champions League return with vital draw.
The Kenyan Premier League champions will host the second leg next Saturday at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi hoping to proceed to the first round.
