Tough test for Royal, Marumo in CAF
SA sides suffer first leg defeats to experienced foes
Royal AM face an uphill battle in the CAF Confederation Cup playoff second leg match at home after losing 0-2 to TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi on Wednesday.
Goals in the second half from Ernest Luzolo and Rainford Kalaba gave Mazembe victory and an advantage with the second leg to come.
Royal will have to win by three goals to advance to the group stages of the competition in their maiden season. But it will be a daunting task with Mazembe boasting a lot of experience in CAF interclub competitions and will be desperate to reach the group stage following their disappointment of being knocked out of the more prestigious Champions League.
Mazembe dropped into the Confed Cup after they were knocked out of Champions League by unfancied Ugandan side Vipers on penalties, in the second preliminary round.
Elsewhere, another South African side in the Confed Cup, Marumo Gallants, contend with a slighter deficit after losing by 0-1 at Al Ahli Tripoli in the midweek first leg fixture.
Anis Saltou scored the only goal of the match, in the first half, to give the Libyans their slight advantage going into the second leg.
Meanwhile, the third SA side in the competition, Cape Town City, failed to make the most of their home ground advantage when they played to a goalless draw with Algerian side USM Alger at Cape Town Stadium.
The Citizens now face an uphill in Algeria even they only need a 1-0 win to go through.