CAFCL: Silver Strikers hold Elgeco Plus, sail through on away goal

Malawi champions Silver Strikers held their Malagasy counterparts Elgeco PLUS to a barren draw in Lilongwe on Saturday to sneak through to the CAF Champions League next round.

The TNM Super League holders advanced to the next round courtesy of an away goal they scored last week in the preliminary round, first leg game which ended 1-1 in Mauritius. Following the result at Bingu National Stadium, Silver will now date Tanzania’s Young Africans in the next stage.

PLUS made clear of their attacking strategy from the first half. They came to by-pass the creative midfield of the Malawians with long balls floated behind its defence and whip high and long crosses from the wide areas into the box while hoping to exploit the lack of towering figures in Silver’s defence. To their credit, the hosts stood firm with Maxwell Paipi and MacDonald Lameck maintaining their defensive discipline.

The Malagasy champions were forced to make an early substitution with their new signing from Cameroon, Ismail Akambi withdrawn while looking for the efficiency of forward Toky Rakotondraibe. The first half could not separate the two giants although Stain Davie came close to scoring for Silver. The striker’s strike was punched away by PLUS keeper.

In the second-half, Silver Strikers added more firepower by withdrawing strikers Davie and Chinsisi Maonga for the fresh legs of Binwell Katinji and dynamism of Zebron Kalima. The visitors’ too introduced Raveloarison Jeaneudes in place of Onjaniaina Patrick Hasirina.

Andrew Joseph, scorer for Silver Strikers in the first leg, came close with a long range effort from the right, but his shot flew across the goal-mouth with no sky blue shirt in sight to do the finishing.

On the other side of the wing, Uchizi Vunga whipped the ball into the box but once again, with Davie withdrawn, the Bankers lacked a focal point in attack. Later in the game, Jeaneudes nearly cleared the ball into his net as he made a mess of a clearance of a free-kick. Luckily, the PLUS man cleared the ball over the bar.

The visitors continued to push for an away goal that could have taken them across the line. However, Silver keeper George Chikooka produced a reflex save to deny Fenotina Randrianjato in the 81st minute. On the other end, Katinji fired hard and low shot flew past PLUS defenders but his effort rolled out wide.

That proved to be the two teams’ realist scoring chances and the hosts sailed through.

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