Seychelles’ St. Michel and Lightstars out of African football club competitions

St. Michel (in red and black) and Kedus Giorgis (in orange) from Ethiopia ended their second leg match of the CAF champions league on a 1-1 draw. (Patrick Joubert, Seychelles News Agency)

(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles' football clubs St. Michel and Lightstars are out of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup competitions after Saturday’s matches. 

St. Michel could only get a 1-1 score against Kedus Giorgis from Ethiopia in the second leg match of the champions league at home, losing 4-1 on aggregate after their 3-0 defeat in the first leg. 

Lightstars already behind by 3-0 from the first match was playing in South Africa this time and lost 6-0 to Bidvest Wits in the confederation cup, going out 9-0 on aggregate.

St. Michel, coming from Anse Aux Pins in the east of main island Mahe, had the advantage of playing the second leg on home ground in Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean. They could not keep up with the Ethiopians in the first half and conceded a 4^th goal in the first 18 minutes courtesy of Ramkel Lok.

Speaking to SNA at the end of the first 45 minutes of the match on Saturday, local football analyst Ulric Mathiot said St. Michel did not look like they wanted to get back in the game.  

“I did not see any attacking emphasis or a strategy leading towards one or two early goals to balance the score in the match. They were completely on the defensive like you would do in a first leg and this created very little chances to score,” said Mathiot.

Mathiot added that St. Michel at home should be taking more risks and attack their opponents to give themselves at least a chance of scoring an equaliser. 

St. Michel's assistant coach Brian Uranie also felt that his team was too quiet in the first half.

Although the local side came back at full speed in the second half and got an equaliser from Yannick Manoo, it was not enough to worry Kedus Giorgis.

Assistant coach Uranie was happy with the second half.  “We played better in the second half and that made a lot of difference. It was unfortunate we could not get a win.”

Uranie said that Giorgis being a semi professional team were more experienced and in better physical condition.

While this was Lightstars' first appearance in the African club competitions, it was the 10^th participation of St. Michel and the 7^th time they were eliminated in the preliminary round. 

Kedus Giorgis qualifies for the next round against defending champions TP Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo and Bidvest Wits will face FC Azam of Tanzania.

Meanwhile, the Seychelles islands’ national football team will be facing Lesotho from southern Africa on March 26 in the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2017) qualifier at 4.30 pm at Stad Linite.