CAF Inter-Clubs: Chiefs and Pirates set for tricky Congolese tests

Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have landed tricky tests in their CAF inter-club competitions after being drawn against Congolese clubs in the second preliminary round.

The Soweto giants will both head to Lubumbashi with Pirates set to take on St Eloi Lupopo, who eliminated Sudanese giants Al Merrikh, in the first preliminary round of the CAF Champions League.

Lupopo won the first leg in Lubumbashi last weekend and in Saturday’s second leg, played in Libya because of the civil war in Sudan, held out for a narrow aggregate triumph to set up the meeting with Pirates, who thrashed Lioli from Lesotho 7-0 on aggregate in the first round.

Pirates looking for back-to-back group stages

Lupopo are the second club in the southern city of Lubumbashi in DR Congo, after TP Mazembe, and should provide Pirates with a major test both home and away as the Buccaneers look to make it to the group stages for a second successive season.

Meanwhile, Chiefs will face AS Simba also from DR Congo in the second preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup after the club secured a 3-0 aggregate win over Djabal of Comoros.

Both legs were played in Lubumbashi because the Comorian club did not have a suitable home ground.

Can Chiefs get past DR Congo’s Simba?

Simba hail from Kolwezi, some 300km from Lubumbashi, and are competing in continental competition for the first time. However, they do not have an approved stadium at home for African club competition matches, so they are playing in Lubumbashi.

The Glamour Boys will look to make it through to the group stages but must improve having struggled to eliminate Angolan side Kabuscorp in the first preliminary round, when they lost 1-0 away before winning by the same margin at home, to make it through after winning a post-match penalty shootout.

Pirates will play the first leg away on October 18 while Chiefs will also be on the road the following day with the return legs slated between October 24 and 26.