Dismal Enyimba's African Season Ends With Loss to Morocco's Wydad

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - CAF Champions League - Final - Al-Ahly v Wydad Casablanca - Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco - May 30, 2022 Wydad Casablanca coach and his players celebrate with the trophy after winning the CAF Champions League REUTERS/Juan Medina Acquire Licensing Rights
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - CAF Champions League - Final - Al-Ahly v Wydad Casablanca - Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco - May 30, 2022 Wydad Casablanca coach and his players celebrate with the trophy after winning the CAF Champions League REUTERS/Juan Medina Acquire Licensing Rights
TT

Dismal Enyimba's African Season Ends With Loss to Morocco's Wydad

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - CAF Champions League - Final - Al-Ahly v Wydad Casablanca - Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco - May 30, 2022 Wydad Casablanca coach and his players celebrate with the trophy after winning the CAF Champions League REUTERS/Juan Medina Acquire Licensing Rights
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - CAF Champions League - Final - Al-Ahly v Wydad Casablanca - Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco - May 30, 2022 Wydad Casablanca coach and his players celebrate with the trophy after winning the CAF Champions League REUTERS/Juan Medina Acquire Licensing Rights

A woeful international season for Nigerian club Enyimba ended on Thursday with a 3-0 hiding at Wydad Casablanca of Morocco in the inaugural African Football League (AFL).

Defenders Ayoub el Amloud, Jamal Harkass and Yahia Attiyat Allah scored before half-time as Wydad completed a 4-0 overall triumph having won the quarter-final first leg 1-0 last Sunday, AFP reported . /

Enyimba, the only Nigerian team to win the CAF Champions League, had high hopes of making an impact this season with former stars Nwankwo Kanu and Finidi George in key positions.

Kanu is the chairman and George the coach of a club based in the southeastern city of Aba and popularly known as the Peoples Elephant.

But despite the guidance of the ex-Arsenal and Ajax Amsterdam stars, Enyimba suffered a shock 4-3 aggregate loss to Al Ahly Benghazi of Libya in a Champions League preliminary tie.

Given a chance of redemption in the AFL, Enyimba flopped again as they rarely threatened to score at home to Wydad, and were outplayed in the return match.

The last thing Enyimba could afford was to concede an early goal in Casablanca, and that is what happened.

Wydad captain Yahya Jabrane nodded a cross into the path of El Amloud, who poked the ball past Enyimba goalkeeper Olorunleke Ojo in the fourth minute.

When captain Ojo parried a Harkass header on 38 minutes, the Moroccan reacted fastest to strike the rebound into the net.

Attiyat Allah, who helped Morocco become the first World Cup semi-finalists from Africa in Qatar last December, struck on 43 minutes with a fierce close-range shot.

Wydad toyed with Enyimba in the second half without scoring again, partly due to several superb saves from Ojo.

In the semi-finals, Wydad will face Esperance of Tunisia, who overturned a 1-0 first-leg defeat by TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo with a 3-0 victory in Rades.

Mazembe kept Esperance at bay until the final minute of the opening half when a looping Oussama Bouguerra header off a corner beat goalkeeper Baggio Siadi.

Unmarked Bouguerra netted again on 76 minutes, hitting a pass inside the six-yard box with such power that while Siadi touched the ball he could not prevent it entering the net.

Backed by a passionate crowd that filled much of the 60,000-seat national stadium, Esperance scored again on 86 minutes through a Mohamed Tougai header after a free-kick.

The AFL bears little resemblance to the original concept with changes to the name, number of competitors and prize money.

Originally called the CAF Africa Super League, the name was altered amid concerns that the competition might be linked to the failed 2021 attempt to form a super league in Europe.

Limited sponsorship meant the number of entrants was cut from 24 to eight and first prize reduced from $11.5 million to four million.



Zheng Routs Paolini to Advance to Semifinals at WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia

Tennis - WTA Finals - King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - November 6, 2024 China's Qinwen Zheng celebrates after winning her women's singles group stage match against Italy's Jasmine Paolini REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Tennis - WTA Finals - King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - November 6, 2024 China's Qinwen Zheng celebrates after winning her women's singles group stage match against Italy's Jasmine Paolini REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
TT

Zheng Routs Paolini to Advance to Semifinals at WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia

Tennis - WTA Finals - King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - November 6, 2024 China's Qinwen Zheng celebrates after winning her women's singles group stage match against Italy's Jasmine Paolini REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Tennis - WTA Finals - King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - November 6, 2024 China's Qinwen Zheng celebrates after winning her women's singles group stage match against Italy's Jasmine Paolini REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Zheng Qinwen cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Jasmine Paolini to reach the semifinals of the WTA Finals on Wednesday.
Zheng needed just over an hour to defeat Paolini in the match that decided the final qualifier from the Purple Group at the season-ending tournament for the top eight women's players, The Associated Press reported.
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who had won her first two matches to clinch a semifinal spot, lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to No. 5 Elena Rybakina. It was Rybakina's first win of the round-robin phase.
It was Zheng's fourth win in as many matches against Paolini. The 22-year-old Chinese player had 12 aces and broke the Italian's serve five times.
“It's one of the best performances I had during this year,” Zheng said. “I'm really proud. I played in a really difficult group.”
Zheng is the youngest player to reach the semifinals in her first appearance at the WTA Finals since Petra Kvitova in 2011. It’s her seventh semifinal of the year and the first time she has beaten two top-10 opponents in the same tournament. She defeated Elena Rybakina on Monday.
Zheng has won 30 matches since Wimbledon, clinching the Olympic gold medal in Paris and winning titles in Palermo and Tokyo.
She could become the second player to win the singles gold medal and reach the WTA Finals championship match in the same season since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988, after Serena Williams in 2012.
Paolini finished the season 38-19, having made the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon.
Jessica Pegula withdrew from her last match at the tournament because of a left knee injury. The American, who lost her first two matches and was already eliminated from semifinal contention, will be replaced in the Orange Group by first alternate and ninth-ranked Daria Kasatkina.
Kasatkina will play second-ranked Iga Swiatek on Thursday.