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
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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.



'Not at the Level': Atletico Left to Ruminate after Club World Cup KO

Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and his team-mate Julian Alvarez react after Club World Cup elimination on Monday. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and his team-mate Julian Alvarez react after Club World Cup elimination on Monday. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
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'Not at the Level': Atletico Left to Ruminate after Club World Cup KO

Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and his team-mate Julian Alvarez react after Club World Cup elimination on Monday. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and his team-mate Julian Alvarez react after Club World Cup elimination on Monday. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

For all the excuses -- and there have been many -- one line from Antoine Griezmann cut straight to the heart of the matter after Atletico Madrid's Club World Cup elimination.

"We have to look at ourselves and see that there are times when we are not at the level and we have to resolve that," said the veteran French forward.

Griezmann's goal earned Atletico a 1-0 win over Botafogo on Monday but the Brazilian side progressed ahead of the Spaniards on goal difference to reach the Club World Cup last 16, reported AFP.

Atletico were left licking their wounds, just like they were after failing to win a major trophy this season.

Their controversial Champions League last 16 elimination by Real Madrid after Julian Alvarez's "double-touch" penalty left Atletico raging at referees, UEFA and their arch-rivals.

They spiraled and blamed that for their capitulation in La Liga, which they led at Christmas, while Simeone insisted a Copa del Rey semi-final defeat by Barcelona was something the club had to accept.

"We are trying to keep improving to get closer and closer to the teams above us and to accept the place we are," said the Argentine coach.

However Atletico, who won La Liga in 2014 and 2021, and finished runners-up in the 2014 and 2016 Champions League final, have been far closer to the elite than they are right now.

Some players at the club understand that, like Griezmann and goalkeeper Jan Oblak, while others do not seem to.

"We'll keep rattling the cages of those at the top," pledged Marcos Llorente after the group stage elimination in the United States.

Atletico were upset that some penalty appeals were ignored during the win over Botafogo in Pasadena.

"I've never seen anything like it, to be honest, I think we should have been awarded two penalties," complained winger Giuliano Simeone, the coach's son.

"I think the decisions are not favoring us at all -- in all the debatable ones, we have to play against that."

'It takes work'

It was Atletico's opening 4-0 thrashing by Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain that cost them qualification and also showed how far they are from the game's peak.

Simeone has been in charge since 2011 and many would say he is the greatest coach in the club's history, but in recent years questions have grown around whether he is the man to drive Atletico further.

The last trophy they won was La Liga four years ago.

"I'm sad to be eliminated, we got six points from three games. We won two," said Simeone.

As has so often proven the case in recent years, it was not enough.

In some quarters of the Spanish media, former Rojiblanco defender Filipe Luis, coach of Brazilian side Flamengo -- who have made it through to the last 16 -- has been linked as a future Atletico coach.

"They've had a long season... let's hope the next one is better for them," said retired Atletico great Sergio Aguero, but with the team not progressing, some fans are losing their hope.

Griezmann, who signed a new contract with Atletico at the start of the summer and ended a 18-game goal drought against Botafogo, believes it will take elbow grease.

"It takes work, and it's a problem deeper and more to do within the team than the referees," he added, as Atletico packed their bags for home.

"We have to focus on what we have to improve, on what we have to do to win these games."