Botola Pro: RS Berkane bounce back; Wydad edge HUSA

Wydad AC are the new leaders in Morocco’s Botola Pro while reigning champions RS Berkane returned to winning ways on Wednesday against upstarts COD Meknes.

Wydad were boosted by their sub-Saharan African stars on Wednesday with early goals from Stephane Aziz Ki and Thembinkosi Lorch lifting The Red Castle to a 2-1 victory over Hassania Agadir (HUSA) at the Stade El Bachir in Mohammedia. A strong start led to a corner kick opportunity and WAC’s short corner resulted in Walid Nassi’s excellent pass to set up former Young African star Aziz Ki for the opening goal after six minutes.

When Aziz Ki had the ball tackled away from him on a WAC attack six minutes later, Lorch collected and fired in the second goal for the visitors. A quick response arrived from HUSA but the new league leaders did well to maintain control and earn three points away from home. WAC are now two points clear of Maghreb Fez at the top of the table.

At the Berkane Municipal Stadium, Youssef Mehri’s second half double gave RS Berkane the spark they needed in a 2-0 victory over COD Meknes.

One of the heroes from Morocco’s African Nations Championship (CHAN) triumph a couple of months ago, Mehri provided the moments of quality to overcome the stubborn visitors. Both goals came on assists from veteran left back Hamza El Moussaoui as RSB ended a brief streak of two matches without a victory.

In the other match from Wednesday, Difaâ el Jadida defeated Olympique de Safi (OCS) 2-1. Since advancing to the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup, OCS have now lost three consecutive Botola Pro matches upon their return from continental duty and now sit dead last on the table with only five points from seven matches.