Yanga beat Bejaia at Taifa stadium to stay alive

Burundian striker, Amissi Tambwe, scored the lone goal of the match in the early opening exchange to earn Yanga three crucial points in the group stage.

 The victory slightly revived Yanga’s hopes of making it into the semi-finals of the continental second tier club championship. It also means that Yanga have successfully avenged a 1-0 away defeat by MO Bejaia in a reverse fixture. Despite the victory, Yanga are still bottom of the table on four points from five matches, one behind Mo Bejaia and Medeama of Ghana. 

With ten points, Group A leaders TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) clinched a semi-final place in the second-tier African club football competition last month with two match days to go. Regardless, Yanga have a mathematical chance of snatching the second semi-final ticket and must win their final match away to TP Mazembe on August 23. 

 However, Medeama will face TP Mazembe in the port city Sekondi today in a match that Yanga will be praying that the Congolese win, to keep the Tanzanian side in contention. A win for Medeama today will throw Yanga out of the race because the Ghanaians will post eight points that can not be reached by Hans Van der Pluijm side.

 A draw will slightly give Yanga hopes. In the encounter, Yanga ought to have emerged with hefty victory against the Algerians, who despite going down were a bit of threat to their host especially in the second half. 

Bejaia came out strongly in the second stanza, which they pushed hard in search for an equaliser, but outstanding Togolese defender Vincent Bossou, who also captained Yanga, was always well placed to protect his goalkeeper, Deogratius Munishi. In that period, Yanga also created numerous scoring opportunities. 

Yanga were left to rue after misfiring striking force of Simon Msuva, Obrey Chirwa and Tambwe wasted a bunch of clear scoring chances. Both Msuva and Chirwa squandered more than three clear scoring chances in front of goal with the best chances in the 59, 64 and 69 respectively. 

Their shots were easily saved by the goalkeeper, Chamseddine Rahmani or went wide. Yanga missed the service of the dependable goal poacher, Zimbabwean Donald Ngoma, who is serving a match ban and things might have been different if he had a chance to play in the match. 

The host also got an early blow after Vincent Andrew was stretched out of the field after colliding with his colleague in an effort to clear the danger. Kelvin Yondani took his place in the 18th minute.