Holders Wydad Casablanca of Morocco lost 2-1 to Nigerian champions, Rivers United at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt on Sunday night, Abbeylivenetwork.com reports.
The Pride of Rivers found themselves behind as Senegalese striker Sambou Junior opened the scoring for Morocco’s most decorated team after only 32 minutes of the encounter.
The home side responded to going behind brilliantly and took only two minutes to draw level as Malachi Ohawume dispatched an effort into the back of the net in the 34th minute as both sides went into the break level.
Only eight minutes had passed in the second half before Rivers United went ahead for the first time in the game. Joseph Onoja slipped a pass through to Paul Acquah who made no mistake in putting it past the goalkeeper in the 53rd minute.
The home side kept their opponents at bay to claim an important first leg win that puts them at an advantage heading into next week’s return leg in Morocco.
Elsewhere, Esperance were punished by Plateau United 2-1 at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
Plateau who came back from Badri’s 27th-minute goal struck back with first-half replies from Ifeanyi Emmanuel and Mustapha Ibrahim.
The Peace Boys didn’t take long before restoring parity as Emmanuel connected a header to Daniel Itodo’s long throw in the 35th minute.
Ten minutes later, Daniel Itodo again provided another assist via a long throw for Mustapha Ibrahim, who scored Plateau United’s second off another header.
