Skipper Mohsine Moutaouali netted the only goal for Moroccan side Raja Club Athletic as they open their TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Group B campaign with a 1-0 victory over South African debutants AmaZulu on Saturday.

The home side got their opener in the 67th minute with the victory taking Raja top of the group with three points, same as Algeria’s ES Setif, who had earlier on beaten Horoya by a similar margin in Conakry.

Elsewhere in the competition, Egyptian side Zamalek scored a last gasp 95th-minute equalizer coming from two goals down to draw parity with Angolan side Petro Atletico in their Group D opener at the Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria on Saturday.

Mahmoud Hamdi levelled things up for the home team after their Angolan counterpart had raced to a two-goal lead by halftime.

Goals from Gleison and Vidinho, but the White Knights fought back with Ibrahim ‘Obama’ Youssef halving the deficit just 10 minutes after coming on before Hamdi won a point at the death.

ES Sétif, Wydad, Mamelodi Sundowns and ES Sétifienne all register opening wins from their various groups.

FULLTIME | #TotalEnergiesCAFCL

After a good performance from Usuthu, the home team walks away with the win.

🇲🇦 Raja Club Athletic 1️⃣-0️⃣ #AmaZuluFC 🇿🇦#HebeUsuthu #UsuthuTogether#UsuthuCAFTakeover pic.twitter.com/uKsFpxammP

— AmaZulu FC (@AmaZuluFootball) February 12, 2022

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Sadio Mane was the hero for Senegal in a moment of redemption following their first continental title 4-2 victory over Egypt at the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé Cameroon on Sunday – he noted he was only thinking about head coach Aliou Cisse.

Senegal hero Sadio Mane has dedicated the side’s Africa Cup of Nations triumph to Aliou Cisse, who he labelled “the most criticized head coach I’ve ever seen in my life”.

The Liverpool forward went from zero to hero when he netted the decisive spot-kick as Senegal defeated Egypt 4-2 in a shootout following a 0-0 draw in Sunday’s final, where Mane missed a seventh-minute penalty.

Mane’s penalty not only clinched Senegal’s first-ever continental crown, but it was a personal moment of redemption, having missed a decisive spot-kick in the 2017 quarter-finals against Cameroon.

But the 29-year-old singled out head coach Cisse, who has 35 caps for Senegal before taking over as head coach in 2015, to dedicate the triumph.

“I know that the Senegalese people have suffered a lot, but I dedicate this trophy to Aliou Cisse,” Mane told reporters, having noted the criticism of the Lions of Teranga boss in the lead-up to the game. “If you knew what he did for the team.”

Mane added: “When I missed the penalty, first I thought of Aliou Cisse. When I scored the last penalty, I immediately thought of Aliou Cisse.”

Cisse, who was a runner-up at AFCON in 2002 during his playing days, praised the current generation headlined by Mane and Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy who saved Mohanad Lasheen’s spot-kick to set up his teammate’s moment of glory.

“It proves the mental strength of this generation,” Cisse said. “We’re African champions.

“It’s been long, it’s been hard, and there have been complicated moments, but we never gave up.

“This was a hard match too; we missed the penalty, and there were other chances we weren’t able to take, but the boys never abandoned the task.

“We are very happy to dedicate the victory to the Senegalese people because from independence until now we have been chasing this first win in this competition.”

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