Kumasi Asante Kotoko broke the hearts of their teeming followers after making heavy weather of their home advantage and exited the CAF Champions League in a painful manner, losing 1-2 to Moudia Club d’El Eulma of Algeria at the Baba Yara Stadium.
After a respectable scoreless draw away, the Kotoko faithful stormed the stadium yesterday confident of victory and qualification to the next stage of the competition, but the home side blew a lead and allowed the visitors to claw back and deliver the knockout punch late into the game to progress on a 2-1 aggregate.
Even though Coach David Duncan’s charges dominated the first half, they failed to make their superior ball possession count and waited until the 40th minute to score the opening goal through Obed Owusu, who pounced on a loose ball and hit the back of the net after El Eulma goalie, Mohammed Oussis, slipped and missed a back pass from his defender Adel Maiza.
Owusu, who was lurking behind the defender, had the easiest of tasks by tapping the ball into the empty net.
However, it was a different scenario after the recess, as the Algerians took the game to the homesters and their efforts paid off in the 61st minute when Fares Hemitti lobbed the ball over onrushing Eric Ofori Antwi, who had left his goal-line, for the equalising goal.
The fear of defeat gingered the Kotoko players up as they redoubled their efforts and returned fire with sustained pressure on the visitors, who resorted to delay tactics, falling down at the slightest touch.
In their desperation to score the winning goal, Kotoko attacked and left their rear end bare and, therefore, allowed the Algerians to hit them cold with an injury time counter-attack. It was undoubtedly the coup de grace that finished off the Porcupine Warriors’ continental campaign, as El Eulma’s danger man Abdel Malik Abbass beat an offside trap set up by the Kotoko defenders and placed the ball beyond the reach of goalkeeper Antwi.
