Stunning comeback

TOGO – Concorde of Mauritania staged one of the great African club competition comebacks by walloping ASC Kara of Togo 4-0 on Sunday to squeeze into the second CAF Confederation Cup qualifying round.

The team from the largely desert country in the north west of the continent entered the second leg of the preliminary round tie trailing 30 from the first encounter in Lome last weekend.

But a stunning recovery was completed five minutes into stoppage time in Nouakchott when Idrissa Thiam scored a fourth unanswered goal for Concorde to pull off a dramatic 4-3 aggregate triumph.

Demini Habib had put Concorde ahead seven minutes into the second leg and Saidou Barry scored a second goal for the Mauritanians nine minutes after halftime.

Bilal Maouloud netted seven minutes from time to increase the lead to three goals and bring the clubs level on aggregate in the African equivalent of the Uefa Europa League.

With a penalty shootout looming, Thiam struck and Concorde advanced to a round-of-32 date with JS Saoura of Algeria during October.

Appearance

Concorde are making a third Confederation Cup appearance and hoping to progress beyond the first round proper for the first time.

The greatest comeback in a CAF club competition was staged by Simba of Tanzania in 1979 when they won 5-0 away to Mufulira Wanderers of Zambia in the African Cup of Champions Clubs after losing 4-0 at home.

Cash-strapped Mali second-tier club Binga travelled an estimated 1 500 kilometres (930 miles) by road to fulfil a return match with Monrovia Club Breweries in Liberia, and triumphed 2-0.

Having built a 30 firstleg lead, the lowerleague outfit advanced 50 overall and will face ASFA Yennenga of Burkina Faso next month.

Another second division side to progress were Bayelsa United of Nigeria, who defeated Ashanti Golden Boys Siguiri of Guinea 4-2 in a tie reduced to one match because of the recent Conakry coup.