52nd edition of top African club competition and 20th under current name and format starts on weekend of 12-14 February 2016. 55 teams will battle for the title with TP Mazembe being title holder. Here is the draw for this season's competition. Like in past, there are three rounds, Preliminary round and 1st and 2nd rounds. News in this season is that some matchdays will be played in midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday; return legs of Second round, Matchdays #2, #4, #6 in group stage) Preliminary round (12/13/14 February; 26/27/28 February) First round (11/12/13 March; 18/19/20 March) Second round (8/9/10 April; 19/20 April) Group stage will be played from June to August, semifinals in September, final in October.
TP Mazembe seems to have an easy bracket. Only team that could trouble them is Wydad Casablanca, which I doubt they will. As for Algerian teams, I doubt they could make a 3rd straight run to the final this year. ES Sétif aren't doing good this season and will have a tough opponent (Al Merreikh) in its bracket. MO Béjaia will be beginners in this competition and will have a tough road to the GS: Ashanti Gold then possibly Club African and Al Zamalek. And there's no guarantee they go beyond the 1st round. Al Ahly has an "easy" bracket as well.
Here's the complete bracket: Last part looks strongest - Douala, Zamalek, Club Africain, Ashanti, Bejaia, really rough. My picks, this early, are: Leopards Setif Mazembe Enyimba Stade Malien (it's about time) Al-Ahly Kaizer Chiefs Zamalek
OK, sorta'. But if you just go to the Confederation's home page and start browsing, you can't seem to find anything about the new year's competition.
http://www.cafonline.com/en-us/newscenter/news.aspx?page=3 links to http://www.cafonline.com/en-US/NewsCenter/News/NewsDetails?id=4AEvuBG9iy7eUYXZXECw3g== which links to what I posted yesterday. I agree that CAF could have made their website better.
Waaay better, they publish game stats and stuff days after game ends. By far the worst managed FIFA's confederation.
It finally starts today! First game of the competition will be played in Uganda where Vipers hosts Nigeria's Enyimba. Centre Chiefs of Botswana withdrew so Ferroviario Maputo qualified to the next round.
Another pull-out - Sporting Praia Cruz didn't arrive on time for game at Warri Wolves and they were disqualified. Wolves will face Al-Merreikh. Vita Club, Wydad Casablanca, Kedus Giorgis, Recreativo do Libolo, Kaizer Chiefs, Union Douala and Club Africain all seem to be qualified to the next round. Mamelodi Sundowns, last season runner-up, now clear in front in RSA Premier League lost to funny named club from Zimbabwe (1-0) while 2003 and 2004 champion Enyimba lost in Uganda (1-0). Return legs are in two weeks time.
TP Mazembe have won the first trophy of the season. They defeated Etoile du Sahel 2-1 to claim the Super Cup title, their third (2010, 2011).
The preliminary round is nearly done. Only AS Douanes Niamey/Wydad Casablanca is still to be played (second leg was postponed to a later date). Here's how the 1st round looks like: Unless a big surprise, winner 6 should be Wydad Casablanca.
Seems like all favourites qualified to the next round. Bejaia scored two times in second halftime to progress in the derby matchup of preliminary round while Mamelodi scored from penalty in 93rd minute to seal 2-0 win over Chicken Inn.
Also, two notable transfers for Cairo teams: Alex Mcleish took over Zamalek while Martin Jol is the new Al Ahly manager.
Wydad, Enyimba, ZESCO, Mamelodi with big wins at home. Title holders were held to a draw in Ethiopia. Return legs next weekend.
We're down to the last 16 after this weekend's games: Notable things are TPM struggling to beat Saint George, ASEC Mimosas eliminating Kaizer Chiefs, Al Ahli Tripoli getting past last year's semi-finalists in Al Hilal & MO Béjaia advancing over Club Africain. If I had to predict, I'll pick these teams to make it to the GS: AS Vita Club, ES Sétif, TP Mazembe, Etoile du Sahel, Stade Malien, Al Ahly, ASEC Mimosas & Zamalek. If this happen, it'll look better than what we had last year in term of names imo
Huge disappointment by Kaizer Chiefs. Awesome underperformers! Great result by Libyan Al-Ahli. I'd love to see: Mamelodi whatever Merreikh or Setif whatever Wydad or Mazembe Enyimba Stade Malien (would be the first ever Malian side to qualify to Group stage) Al Ahly ASEC Zamalek Stade Malien, Al-Ahli Tripoli and MO Bejaia never participated in group stage.
AS Vita Club 1 - 0 Mamelodi Sundowns Al-Merrikh 2 - 2 ES Sétif Wydad Casablanca 2 - 0 TP Mazembe Enyimba 3 - 0 Étoile du Sahel Stade Malien 1 - 3 ZESCO United Young Africans 1 - 1 Al Ahly ASEC Mimosas 2 - 0 Al-Ahli Tripoli Zamalek 2 - 0 MO Béjaia Some decisive leads early on: ZESCO, Enyimba, ASEC & Zamalek all look good to progress, could say the same about Casablanca but TPM is scary at home.
Great result, Enyimba! They return (unless miracle happens) to the group stage for the first time after 2011. ZESCO last took part in group stage in 2009, Wydad in 2011, ASEC in 2008. Hard luck for Mamelodi, Vita scored in stoppage time. I hope they can come back and qualify to the main round.
ZESCO United 2 - 1 Stade Malien MO Béjaia 1 - 1 Al-Zamalek ES Sétif 0 - 0 Al-Merreikh ZESCO, Zamalek & ES Sétif are the first 3 teams qualified to the group stages
All favourites qualified today. I hope we'll see at least one surprising qualifier from remaining five matchups.
I'd love to see both of those clubs in group stages so I am pretty neutral there. Although I like Al-Ahly, I wouldn't mind seeing Young Africans in. But I want to see Mamelodi Sundowns in.