adminDifaa el Jadida of Morocco thrashed Benfica of Guinea-Bissau 10-0 at home on Saturday to achieve the biggest single-leg victory in African Champions League history. Moroccan Hamid Ahaddad scored five goals in the preliminary round first leg rout and Tanzanian Simon Msuva contributed three for Jadida who led 6-0 at half-time.
Mauritanian Bakary N’Diaye opened the scoring after four minutes with Moroccan Bilal el Magri also on target. The previous record for a single-leg win was shared by Kabwe Warriors of Zambia and Raja Casablanca of Morocco, who both secured nine-goal victories in qualifiers 39 seasons apart.
Kabwe Warriors beat Majantja of Lesotho 9-0 in 1972 when the competition was known as the African Cup of Champions Clubs, whilst Raja Casablanca were 10-1 winners over Tourbillon of Chad in 2011 .
Jadida’s feat continued the momentum in Moroccan football following Morocco’s convincing triumph in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) for home-based footballers last weekend. Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca are the reigning African Champions League title-holders, and Morocco have also bid to stage the 2026 World Cup.
After a bye, Wydad will launch their title defence against Stade Malien or newcomers Williamsville of the Ivory Coast who drew 1-1 in their first leg in Mali.
In other preliminary round first leg matches on Saturday, there was a shock 3-0 victory for Township Rollers of Botswana over 2015 semi-finalists Al Merrikh of Sudan in Gaborone. – BBC Sport.
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