{"id":4472,"date":"2025-09-20T15:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T14:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4472"},"modified":"2025-09-21T10:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T09:55:06","slug":"chan-round-up-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2025\/09\/20\/chan-round-up-15\/","title":{"rendered":"CHAN Round-up 15<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 17th<\/sup> 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group A Matchday 5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was crunch time in Group A \u2013 Zambia was already eliminated, so the Chipolopolo had nothing but pride to play for \u2013 that and identifying some talent for the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations. Avram Grant had indicated that he had identified some players at the CHAN that he intended to utilise in Morocco four months from now, but with Kenya looking certain to qualify for the knockout phase \u2013 the position in the group was still in question, the go-to match was the Leopards versus the Atlas Lions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morocco performed when it mattered most, securing a 3-1 victory that sent the Democratic Republic of Congo \u2013 twice winners of the African Nations Championship \u2013 packing. Needing a victory to edge Morocco out the DRC conceded first, after just 8 minutes. Youssef Belammari\u2019s pass from the left of the area was converted by Oussama Lamlioui from close range with a sublime backheel, meaning that the Leopards had to score twice without conceding to progress. Imad Raihi was fortunate to escape a caution for dissent when he suggested that the referee should use his eyes after penalising him \u2013 correctly \u2013 for a foul on Ibrahim Matobo Mubala on the edge of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the Leopards fought back to secure parity after 43 minutes through Jepht\u00e9 Kitambala after Mubala\u2019s cross was nodded on into his path. However, it was Morocco who stepped up a gear in the second half. Just under midway through the second half a foul on Khalid Baba by Magloire Kalonji was missed by the referee to the obvious bewilderment of Morocco\u2019s coach Tariq Sektioui\u2013 it was a clear and obvious error. This was exactly what VAR was meant to correct and it did. Morocco\u2019s captain Mohamed Rabie Hrimat made no mistake from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlas Lions sealed their spot in the quarter-final after 80 minutes when Lamlioui scored his second \u2013 Youssef Mehri provided the assist. There was still time for Lamlioui to claim his hat-trick, less than five minutes later only for VAR to correctly disallow it as the ball had gone out of play in the build-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlas Lions was through to the quarter-finals \u2013 they would face unbeaten co-hosts, Tanzania in Dar es Salaam\u2019s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenya secured top spot in Group A and a quarter-final against Madagascar after a 1-0 victory of the Chipolopolo who left East Africa\u2019s CHAN after a literally pointless disastrous campaign thanks to Ryan Ogam\u2019s winner after 75 minutes. Zambia delivered an improved performance, but it was not enough to thwart Benni McCarthy\u2019s resurgent Harambee Stars from joining co-hosts Tanzania in the quarter-finals while retaining home advantage for topping their group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ogam seized his chance after Boniface Muchiri\u2019s skilful work on the right flank created space for him to cross and invite Ogam to control the ball and slot it past Zambian goalkeeper, Charles Kalumba. It proved to be the winner and settled the 27,000 strong crowd at Nairobi\u2019s Kasarani Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zambia\u2019s goalkeeper, Kalumba distinguished himself with a stellar performance that will have done his AFCON chances no harm and will give Toaster Nsabata, currently unable to get regular football with his South African club, Sekhukhune United, food for thought. Kenya topped Group A with ten points, one ahead of second placed Morocco. The Leopards went home with 6 points, two ahead of Angola\u2019s Palancas Negras while Zambia propped up the group with four defeats out of four. Despite Avram Grant\u2019s upbeat view that there were some positives, it remained hard to deny that this was a disastrous showing from the once mighty Chipolopolo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 17th 2025) Group A Matchday 5 It was crunch time in Group A \u2013 Zambia was already eliminated, so [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[247,1316,1444,166,1445,1440,438,1344,1437,832,1438,1436,1433,81,1443,1434,1369,1447,646,1312,1441,639,326,1368,1442,640,606,1446,85,1435,1439,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4473,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions\/4473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}