League champions chase history in continental football

Gor Mahia players celebrate in a past match. [Stafford Ondego/Sportpicha.com]

Gor Mahia will receive at least Sh55 million in this year’s Confederations of African Football (Caf) Champions League, but they must first beat Tunisian giants Esperance in the first round.

The Kenyan Premier League champions qualified for the first round after knocking out Equitorial Guinea’s Leones Vegetarianos 3-1 on aggregate.

Gor went into the return match on Tuesday night enjoying a 2-0 goal advantage but were held 1-1 by the hosts.

But the big news that should excite Gor Mahia fans is the money the club stands to gain, which will perhaps put pressure on the club management to ensure they have proper preparations ahead of the two-legged tie. 

Money stages

After Caf doubled the number of teams that will qualify for the money stages in its competitions, Gor have their best chance of advancing and only need to beat Esperance to be among the 16 lucky teams.

Teams that finish third and fourth in the groups will receive Sh55 million each, while those that make it to the quarter-finals will earn Sh65 million. Semi-finalists will walk home with Sh87.5 million.

No Kenyan team has ever made it to the money stages of the competition since Caf introduced grants at this level.

Apart from the huge financial windfall, Gor Mahia will also have an opportunity to play in the Confederations Cup, should they be eliminated by Esperance, giving them more matches in the continental level.

According to new Caf rules, 16 teams that will be relegated from the Champions League will take part in the Confederations Cup.

In Malabo on Tuesday night, the hosts started the encounter strongly as Gor Mahia played a tactical opening half with the tight back line cutting off every threat.

It was a game of tactics as Gor absorbed pressure while launching attacks. 

Not once nor twice, but thee times that striker Meddie Kagere found himself with only the goalkeeper, but failed to find his target. This gave the home team morale to push farther upfront.

The Gor Mahia hitman was for sure a threat to the Vegetarianos defence as his skills and electric pace kept the home boys busy.

Gor's defence was kept busy all through as the Vegetarianos strikers camped at the K’Ogalo area. They pushed harder, but in those attempts, failed to get past Gor's backline.

With such an open game, the opener was surely coming and indeed, the home team took the lead just before the end of first half. 

A one-two touch from Gor backline resulted in a horrendous blunder by defender Joash Onyango that gifted the hosts with an easy tap in. Game ended 1-0 at the breather.

Things swayed from one end to the other as K'Ogalo dictated the game and on the 74th minute, Francis Kahata floated a corner kick into the box that resulted in an own goal by a Vegetarioanos  defender.