Rabat – Morocco’s football club RS Berkane won 2-1 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup final on Sunday. The game took place at the Berkane Municipal Stadium in Morocco.
The Moroccan side kicked off the game on a strong note, dominating the early minutes of the game, and opening the scoring in the 13th minute, with Issoufou Dayo finding the back of the net in a penalty.
Before the first half concluded, Adil Tahif scored a second in the 30th minute, cementing his team’s win. In the 46th minute, Seifeddine Jaziri scored the first goal for his team.
This season marks the 21st edition of the competition. The return leg is scheduled a week later at the Cairo International Stadium, with Zamalek hosting on Sunday, May 19, at 5 p.m. GMT.
RS Berkane and Zamalek have both emerged as strong favorites in the competition after finishing atop their respective groups undefeated until the final.
The Moroccans have had more success in the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup than their Egyptian counterparts, with two wins and one loss in the final.
Meanwhile, Zamalek has proven themselves in the competition and will certainly look to replicate their 2019 success over the Moroccans to end what could be a five-year drought for the White Knights.
This year’s tournament has been fraught with drama, following Algeria’s hostility towards the Moroccan team.
In April, CAF announced RS Berkane as a winner after Algeria’s team pulled out of the competition because the Moroccan team’s jerseys featured the full map of Morocco, including the southern provinces.
The Algerian regime confiscated RS Berkane’s jerseys after the Moroccan club landed in Alger for the first leg of the match against USM Alger.
Algerian authorities refused to hand them back to the team, resulting in the game not taking place. In the second leg, USM Alger traveled to Morocco only to pull out from the game for a second time.
CAF penalized USM Alger with a forfeit of 0-3 for the first and second-leg matches. In addition, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected an appeal from the Algerian Football Federation and USM Alger to suspend the decision issued by the CAF Appeals Committee, which ruled in favor of RS Berkane.
