The Royal Army football club suffered an acceptable 1-0 defeat against their host Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa in the first leg of the CAF Champions League final, in the match held yesterday at “Loftus Versfeld” stadium in Pretoria, thus postponing the qualification decision to the return match in Rabat.
The Royal Army team started the match with momentum and vitality, exchanging attacks with Sundowns in an attempt to score an early away goal, but rushing and lack of focus affected the final touches of both teams.
Despite the good performance of the Moroccan team, Sundowns managed to score the only goal of the match in the 37th minute from a powerful direct free kick taken by player Aubrey Modiba, which settled in the net of the outstanding goalkeeper Reda Tagnaouti.
In the second half, Sundowns showed greater control and created many dangerous chances that nearly doubled the score if not for the brilliance of goalkeeper Reda Tagnaouti who expertly saved two clear one-on-one situations; also, the left post saved the Royal Army’s goal in another attempt.
The start of the second half was delayed due to a technical fault in the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, which required the refereeing team to intervene to fix the malfunction and resume play after a while.
With this result, the Royal Army will have to play the return match on their home ground and among their fans with the aim of winning to claim the CAF Champions League title.
