Israel Saria
Taifa Stars
Tanzania lost to Central Africa Republic by 2-1 goals in the return leg match of the African Nations Cup qualifier played at a rain-soaked stadium Bangui yesterday.
The host side kicked off the match with aggressive attacks to besiege the visitors’ goal.
Playing before their partisan home crowd the Central Africa Republic team launched a full fledged attacks early on to pin Stars into defensive.
Stars survived three goal attempts in the opening 15 minutes but succeeded to contain the host side as the tide of the game was swinging either side.
However, the host side found a break through after 39 minutes to give their home fans a reason to cheer the goal that lasted up to half time mark.
Stars kicked off the second half impressively while the host side trying their best to increase the tally.
It was Shaaban Nditi brought back Stars into the game to pull an equaliser 15 minutes to time after dribbling past three defenders.
Substitute Athumani Machupa who came in for Mwinyi Kazinmoto had his 77th minute disallowed for an offside.
Stars celebrations were short-lived as five minutes after the equaliser as the host side managed to score the wining goal to pulverize the visitors.
This is Stars’ second loss in the qualifiers which has placed Tanzania on the brink of losing the race to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea finals early next year.
Stars have two matches one against Morocco and the other versus Algeria to stay second from bottom. Algeria lost to Morocco by 4-0 goals in another qualifier tie of group D.
Morocco have seven points to take a strong command of the group while Stars have placed themselves on a knife edge with the task of wining the two matches in the fixtures.
With only one match at home to Algeria, Stars are in tight corner to sail through the qualifiers unless coach Jan Poulsen injects a unique or miracle spirit into the team to post victories.
The Tanzania team is expected top board a flight home today.
Line-up:
Stars:
Shaaban Kado/Dihile, Shadrack Nsajigwa, Idrisa Rajab, Aggrey Morris, Nadir Haroub, Nizar Khalfan, Nurdin Bakari, Mwinyi Kazimoto/Athumani Machupa, Shaaban Nditi, John Bocco /Mbwana Samatta, Mrisho Ngasa.
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