Sharks fail in effort to drown Asante Kotoko

Kariobangi Sharks Moses Mwangi(R) and Songne Yacouba of Asante Kotoko from Ghana battle for the ball during their CAF confederation qualifier match at Kasarani Stadium on Saturday 15/12/18[Boniface Okendo,Standard]

Coach Muluya confident his side can still score in return leg in Kumasi.

Visiting Asante Kotoko picked a crucial point at Kasarani after playing to a barren draw against Kariobangi Sharks in  CAF Confederations Cup first round fixture yesterday.

This was a good result for the West African giants ahead of the return leg on December 22 and they will be confident of passage to the group stages of the tournament after restricting the homeboys a 0-0 score.

However, Sharks will also take heart in the fact that they did not concede an away goal and will be hoping they do the same in Kumasi and hope pray they nick the odd goal.

Sharks coach William Muluya insisted that his side played well despite failing to scoreline.

“We had a few chances but didn’t make them count. However, we can still score away and the pressure will be on them. Any kind of scoring draw will sees us through to the first round,” he said.

The visitors were the more aggressive side and by the fourth minute had forced a corner which Sharks goalkeeper Brian Bwire dealt with.

In the 14th minute, Sharks danger man Duke Abuya was denied by Abdul Frimpong after the Kotoko defender stretched to keep out the ball from danger.

Four minutes later Emmnuel Gyamfi danced past Sharks back line but did not have a chance to shoot and the home team survived the danger. A corner for Sharks one minute later was evidence of the pressure by the Kenyan side.

With the match getting close to the half-hour mark, the visitors upped the tempo and Bwire was the more active goalkeeper.

Amos Ganiyu’s header from a corner went just wide and then Bwire was called to action against to deal with a goal bound shot from Gyamfi.

The visitors won a free kick at a dangerous position but it went wide. Sharks finally came the closest to get something from the first half with eight minutes to the break.

James Mazembe’s shot from the right flank beat Felix Annan in Kotoko’s goal but the danger was well cleared.

Kotoko closed the first half with Nabby Keita’s header going just wide.

Sharks came back strongly in the second half looking more urgent and created a number of chances but could not convert them.

Kotoko then came closest to score in the second half through Songne Yakuba.