Simba SC comfortably dispatched with Al Merrikh on Tuesday afternoon, with a 3-0 win that lands them one step closer to the last eight of this season’s African Champions League.
Darren Mattocks should have opened the scoring in the 12th minute, the striker was played through on goal by Malik Maki, but managed to blast his effort over the bar.
Six minutes later and Al Merrikh were punished for that miss, as Luís Jose Miquissone showed great composure in the box to fire into the back of the net.
From the half-an-hour mark the Al Merrikh decided it was time to show off the type of football they’re renowned for. One such gorgeous interplay saw Mohamed Muhamoud drive at the box before finding Mattocks who this time sent the ball across goal but Nooh.
Mohamed Hussein doubled the hosts lead with six minutes left to the break sending a low effort after his run on the left was picked out by Morrison’s beautiful passes.
The Red Castle were breached again minutes later, but goalkeeper Monged Abuzaid managed to come to their rescue with a superb save off a close-range effort by Clatous Chama.
The first half was also hampered by a lot of bad tackles that saw the referee awarding numerous free-kicks to both teams.
Al Merrikh almost pulled a goal back a minute after the restart when Ahmed Youssif went through on the right side of the box and played a cut-back at the near post towards Bambara but the Burkinabe’s close range shot was saved by goalkeeper Aishi Manula.
Simba extended their lead on the 50th minute when Miquissone turned from scorer to provider, doing well on the left to float in a cross as Chris Mugalu turned it home at the near post.
Al Merrikh struggled to create openings in the second half but went close in the 79th minute, as substitute Musab Kurdman skipped past two defenders, before firing into the side-netting.
The Red Castle pushed forward in numbers, but they were left vulnerable at the back and they nearly conceded when Chama’s curling effort hit the crossbar with Abuzaid well-beaten in the closing stages of the encounter.
