Tusker’s hopes of enjoying an extended CAF Champions League campaign in 2021/2022 season took a major blow on Saturday afternoon when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Egyptian giants Zamalek.
The first round, first leg encounter was played at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, with the North Africans claiming victory thanks to a second half goal from Achraf Bencharki and a superb performance from their gloves-man Mohamed Gabal.
They will be confident of securing progression into the second round when they host the return game in Cairo next weekend.
Tusker quickly settled into a rhythm and took control of the match, with Zamalek’s Mohamed Gabal easily the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first half.
Gabal came with an excellent double save to deny Tusker midfielder Boniface Muchirijust past the quarter hour mark, with the scoring chance arising thanks to a poor back-pass from defender Mahmoud Ibrahim.
That was the best opportunity of the first 45 minutes for the home side, though certainly not the only one which they should have taken advantage of. However, the whistle for the half time interval saw the teams locked at 0-0.
Zamalek, who had gained confidence as the game progressed through the first half, began the second strongly and claimed the lead within three minutes of the restart – striker Achraf Benchariki netted with a well-taken shot to make it 1-0.
Tusker went on an immediate search for an equaliser, but Eugene Asike’s header went over the crossbar, before Daniel Sakari latched onto a rebound off but failed to find the target at the midway point of the second stanza.
The hosts kept up their push for an equaliser, even sacrificing defensive midfielder Humphrey Mieno and replacing him with striker John Njuguna in the dying minutes, but they were unable to find a way past Gabal in the Egyptian’ goal.
