Mamelodi Sundowns and Esperance de Tunis began the mini-league stage of the 2020-21 African Champions League on the winning note after by defeating Al Hilal and Teungueth respectively.
Sundowns silenced the Sudanese giants’ Al Hilal Omdurman 2-0 in a match played at a Group B opener at Loftus Versfeld Stadium Saturday.
Mosa Lebusa scored the opener in the tenth minute with a powerful header from Lyle Lakay’s corner before second half substitute Kermit Erasmus added the second in the last minute after he was teed up by Peter Shalulile.
The win against the Blue Wave allowed the 2016 champions to top the group on 3 points, two more than DR Congo’s TP Mazembe and Algeria’s CR Belouizdad, who played for a goalless draw earlier on the day.
In the other fixture, Esperance de Tunis survived Teungueth scare to win 2-1 in a Group D match played in Tunis.
The Senegalese champions went ahead on the 33rd minute courtesy of Grbril Sillah’s strike but Esperance equalized from the spot through skipper Taha Yassine Khennisi at the stroke of half-time.
Basit Abdul Khalid scored the winning goal on the 73rd minute after heading home a cross rom Ali Ben Romdhane.
Teungueth had a wonderful chance to snatch the equalizer on the 85th minute when Sakho went on goal but he was denied by Cisse in a one-on-one situation.
The other game of the afternoon in the Champion League on Saturday saw Horoya starting the Group C campaign with a 2-0 win over Petro de Luanda.
Dramane Nikiema scored the opening goal from the spot on the 36th minute after striker Ocansey Mandela was brought inside the area by a Petro defender.
Yacouba Gnagna Barry sealed the three points for Conakry giants with a wonder strike just five minutes to the end of the match.
