Gor leave for return leg of Caf Cup match in Madagascar

Gor Mahia’s Khalid Aucho (left) challenges Rabeastmbola Lantunirina of Madagascar’s CNaPS during their Champions League match at Nyayo
Stadium on February 14. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The hosts’s nimble-footed but wasteful forwards, led by Naina Ramanitrandrasana and Rabeson Simouri, carry on their shoulders coach Rabeharusia Herimannitra’s hopes of overturning a 1-0 loss they suffered in the first leg in Nairobi.
  • The hosts thus need to win tomorrow’s match set for the 2,500-seater Stade Municipal de Toamasina Miarinarivo by two clear goals to eliminate the Kenyan champions.
  • Gor will progress to the next phase outright with a draw or win of any kind, or on away-goal rule should Frank Nuttal’s team lose the match by a single strike but manage to score a goal.

Gor Mahia will Saturday morning leave for Antananarivo, Madagascar, to play hosts Caisse Nationale de Prevoyance (CNaPS) in the return leg match of the preliminary round of Caf Champions League.

Standing in Gor’s path of reaching the first round of the tournament for a second straight season is little-known CNaPS. The hosts’s nimble-footed but wasteful forwards, led by Naina Ramanitrandrasana and Rabeson Simouri, carry on their shoulders coach Rabeharusia Herimannitra’s hopes of overturning a 1-0 loss they suffered in the first leg in Nairobi.

The hosts thus need to win tomorrow’s match set for the 2,500-seater Stade Municipal de Toamasina Miarinarivo by two clear goals to eliminate the Kenyan champions.

A 1-0 triumph for the home team after normal and extra time will take the contest to post-match penalties. Gor will progress to the next phase outright with a draw or win of any kind, or on away-goal rule should Frank Nuttal’s team lose the match by a single strike but manage to score a goal.

“We carry a lead and that is the most important fact, and we did not concede at home which would have been a disaster,” Gor Mahia coach, Frank Nutall, told the club’s official website.

Nuttal looks set to rely on the rich goal-scoring form of midfielder Ali “teargas” Abondo and Michael Olunga to see out this contest.