Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan narrowly beat CS Sfaxien of Tunisia 1-0 in the first leg of their first round clash on Saturday, www.aclsports.com reports.
In the Oluyole Warriors’ first game on the continent in 27 years, striker Emmanuel Lucky was the man to open the scoring and seal the win at the MKO Abiola Arena in Abeokuta.
Despite playing away from home, Salisu Yusuf’s boys started the game very well, dominating proceedings against the two-time champions of the competition.
Defender Issa Yusuf was the first to test the goalkeeper of the visitors from range, but his attempt was pushed out for a corner. Winger Taheer Abubakar also fired wide off the mark moments later.
Just minutes after the halfway mark of the first half, Shooting Stars got themselves a well deserved lead. A lovely combination play down the flank ended with Emmanuel Lucky blasting home from a nod down by Desmond Ojietefian.
The pressure from Shooting Stars continued as Yusuf went close again after some fine build up by the home team.
Shooting Stars took the lead into the break, but it was the visitors who upped the ante after the restart. However, 3SC goalkeeper Mustapha Lawal was on hand to deny the visitors.
Salisu Yusuf’s side were camped in their half for most of the second half but the home side were resolute to keep the visitors at bay before seeing out the win despite missing a plethora of chances late on.
With the win, the Nigerian side take a slender lead to next weekend’s return leg in Sfax as they hope to reach the second round of the preliminary stages.
