Tough Champions League draw for Dynamos

JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwe football giants Dynamos have been handed a tough African Champions League draw after they were pitted in the lucrative group phase against three former winners of the continent’s prestigious club competition.
Dynamos are in Group A with Egyptian archrivals Al Ahli and Zamalek as well as Ivorian side ASEC Abidjan, who beat the Harare giants 4-2 in the 1998 Champions League final.
The two Egyptian sides share a record five titles of Africa’s premier club competition.
Group B is made up of two-time champions Enyimba of Nigeria, Al Hilal of Sudan, Cameroon newcomers Coton Sport and the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s TP Mazembe Englebert, who last won the last of their two continental titles 40 years ago.
The draw was conducted in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Saturday.
The league phase starts in July, with the winners of the two groups meeting in the final in October.
After surprisingly making the lucrative last eight, Dynamos could turn back the hands of time and repeat their 1998 fairytale campaign in which they had also not been expected to reach the final.
Torn down by in-house squabbles following their success, Dynamos had struggled to prove that their 1998 odyssey was not a fluke until they knocked out defending champions Etoile du Sahel in the third round of this year’s competition last week with a shock 2-0 aggregate win.
In 1998, Dynamos against all odds topped Group A which included Etoile du Sahel, Ghana’s Hearts of Oak and Nigeria’s Eagle Cement.
The Harare giants were held to goal-less draw at home to ASEC before they were trounced 4-2 in the two-legged final.
The following year Dynamos again reached the group stage of the Champions League, but could only finish third behind Tunisia’s Esperance and ASEC and above SS Saint Louisienne of Reunion.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe have advanced to the final round of qualifiers for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) after edging Namibia 1-0 on Saturday.
The Warriors had been held to a goal-less draw in the first leg in Harare a fortnight ago, but Motor Action midfielder Clemence Matawu rose from the bench to score the only goal of the match away to Namibia.
CHAN is a new continental tournament for players from domestic leagues only.
The early stages of the competition are played on a regional basis, with Zimbabwe in the Southern Zone.
Seven winners from the regional qualifiers will advance to the CHAN finals in the Ivory Coast in 2009. – ZimOnline.