Too close yet too far! Ulinzi hammer Smouha, bow out on aggregate

Brave Ulinzi Stars on Saturday bowed out of the Caf Confederation Cup after losing 4-3 on aggregate to Egyptian side Smouha despite their spirited 3-0 win in the second leg of their preliminaries tie at the Kenyatta Stadium, Machakos.

Samuel Onyango struck twice in the opening half to give Ulinzi hope of a historic comeback before Omar Mbongi added a third late on to take the soldiers within one goal of taking the tie into extra time.

However, the Egyptians, who started wasting time as early as in the 10th minute, held on to go through to the third and final stage of preliminaries 4-3 on aggregate.

The soldiers’ determination in the opening 45 minutes continued after the break with a number of attacks as they chased the five-goal target.

Ulinzi suffered a major setback immediately after the restart as John Kago was sent off for a second bookable offence although his departure did little to dampen the soldier's spirit, as they continued to attack with purpose and the visitors were forced into an almost permanent retreat.

Coach Benjamin Nyangweso had tweaked his starting lineup for the match, packing up more players in midfield in a bid to neutralise his opponents.

Onyango's man-of-the-match performance seemed to be a bold declaration of his intention to fill in the shoes left by striker John Mark Makwatta.

Onyango put Ulinzi in front in the tenth minute after latching onto laying Daniel Waweru's cross before beating defender Malo Batrik and neatly slotted home past Smouha goalkeeper Nahdi Mohammed.

The former Sony Sugar man added a second in the 37th minute, this time intercepting a miss-pass from Yassir Ahmed before finding the back of the net.

His goals seemed to have inspired new belief in the soldiers who played with determination for the rest of the tie.

The third goal came 20 minutes to the final whistele when Mbongi lifted a corner kick that bounced off the Smouha defensive wall and was deflected into the net.

"They have worked very hard today. Our plan was to attack from the first minute, because we were at home. We didn't want them to give the opponents any space. We wanted to force them (Smouha) to use long balls,” said Nyangweso.

"We have come so close and lost, but there have been good lessons learnt in the four games we have played. I hope the boys can carry today's performance into their league matches.”

Onyango, Evans Amuoka and second half substitute Oscar Wamalwa all had chances to take the tie into extra-time in the last quarter hour of the match, but fluffed their lines.