The end of the road in the 2020/2021 continental campaign for both Nkana and Napsa Stars concluded with a familiar North African tale.
In Algeria, Napsa Stars failed to replicate their resilient 2-2 first leg draw against JS Kabylie after losing 2-1 in their final CAF Confederation Cup Group B match in Tizi Ouzou in a late night kickoff that ended in the early hours of Thursday.
Mohamed Bencherifa headed in the first goal in the 29th minute to give JSK a one-nil halftime lead.
Koucila Boualia added JSK’s final goal in the 57th minute and the margin remained that way well into stoppage time.
Napsa Stars Coach Mohamed Fathi then brought on Emmanuel Mayuka for Luka Nguni in the 86th minute and the changed paid-off with a 90th minute goal from the veteran striker and 2012 AFCON winner.
The goal took Mayuka’s tally in this seasons CAF Confederation Cup to 5 goals and he ends as Zambia’s top scorer in 2020/2021 continental campaign on 5 goals.
Napsa finished their debut league phase campaign bottom of Group B on 4 points, five points behind second placed Coton Sport from Cameroon who lost 2-1 away to outgoing CAF Confederation Cup champions RSB Berkane in Morocco.
Berkane exited an unsuccessful defence in third place on 8 points.
JSK top Group B on 12 points as they seek their first final appearance in the second tier CAF competition since winning the predecessor tournament the CAF Cup in 2002 in which they are the record winners with three titles.
Meanwhile, in Morocco, 2018 CAF Confederation Cup champions Raja Casablanca completed back-to-back Group D victories over Nkana with a 2-0 home win in Casablanca in another late Wednesday night kickoff.
Raja also beat Nkana by the same margin in the first leg meeting on March 17 at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Riad Idbouiguiguine and Wali Sadaoui scored in the 18th and 42 minutes respectively to see Raja finish on maximum 18 points to win Group D.
Nkana finished third on 6 points from as many Group D games played.
Pyramids FC of Egypt joined Raja in the quarterfinals after finishing second on 12 points following a 1-0 home win in Cairo over winless Namungo of Tanzania who finished their Group D campaign with six straight defeats.
When is nkana firing their illiterate technical chairman. For as long as the chap is there, they should just forget about making progress.
Nkana, Napsa were chancers. They should not have represented the country. Napsa are too raw. As for Nkana, its the “ubulimi bwakale tabutalalika abana” adage
which one is this illiterate man messing up things for NKANA?