Raja survive battering with 10 men to win CAF Confederation Cup

COTONOU: Moroccan club Raja Casablanca survived a second-half battering from Algerian rivals JS Kabylie with 10 men to win the CAF Confederation Cup final 2-1 in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou on Saturday. In a tale of two halves at the Stade de l’Amitie the Casablanca outfit raced into a two-goal lead within 14 minutes through goals from star attackers Soufiane Rahimi and Ben Malango.

But Kabylie pulled one goal in the first minute of the second half through Zakaria Boulahia and took control when Omar Arjoune was shown a straight red card on 63 minutes. A Kabylie side that had been disorganised during the opening half began to string together passes and some of the football drew warm applause from a limited crowd in the 20,000-seater due to coronavirus.

But an equalizer evaded the club from the northeastern city of Tizi Ouzou and Algeria remain without a winner since the African equivalent of the UEFA Europa League kicked off 17 years ago. Rahimi, voted the outstanding player at the African Nations Championship in Cameroon last February, dribbled past goalkeeper Oussama Benbot to score on five minutes.

Kabylie protested that the Moroccan was offside, but South African referee Victor Gomes awarded the goal after a VAR check. Rahimi turned creator as Raja doubled their advantage on 14 minutes thanks to a close-range shot from physically imposing Congolese Malango. Boulahia scored his third goal of the Confederation Cup campaign by slamming a rebound past goalkeeper Anas Zniti and into the bottom left corner of the net. —AFP