TP Mazembe 1-0 Heartland: Congolese Crows Clinch Third African Crown

TP Mazembe of DR Congo won this year's CAF Champions League on Saturday, after they pipped Nigeria's Heartland 1-0 in the return leg final of Africa's biggest annual club competition at the Stade Municipal in Lubumbashi.

Aggregate scores stood at 2-2 after the two-legged final, but Mazembe won their third African Champions title on account of the away goal rule, after they lost the first leg 2-1 in Owerri a week ago.

Heartland had hung on to their 2-1 lead from the first clash till the 73rd minute when disaster struck after almost unbearable pressure from the host team, who won the African Champions Cup in 1968 and 1969.

Defender Ikechukwu ThankGod headed into his own goal, and this proved to be the championship-winner as substitute goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa was completely beaten.

The misery of the Nigerians was completed in stoppage time when striker Emeka Nwanna was given a straight red card by Algerian referee Mohamed Benouza for a dangerous tackle.

The second half of this final was very much like the first period with Mazembe attacking again and again and their opponents sitting back and defending with as many as five defenders, while launching very few counter attacks.

Mazembe will, by virtue of this triumph, represent Africa in next month's FIFA Club World Cup. They also pocketed a revised cash prize of $1.5 million, while Heartland earned a million dollars.

The home team, with a noisy capacity crowd behind them, got off brightly, piling early pressure on Heartland at the Stade Municipal.

Mazembe recorded four corners in the first nine minutes to underline this early pressure, as Heartland did well to keep their shape in defence.

In one of those rare Heartland attacks, King Osanga had a chance to stun the 35,000-strong crowd after 14 minutes when he was set up by the hard-working Nwanna, but he fluffed his shot with goalkeeper Muteba Kidiaba at his mercy.

Mazembe continued to attack with skipper Tresor Mputu, Ikanga and leading scorer in the competition with eight goals Kalunituka Dioko firing at Heartland goal with skipper Victor Ezurike and Kalu Orji both getting booked as the hosts stepped up the pressure.

Heartland's five-man defence continued to keep Mazembe at bay with ThankGod doing a great man-marking job on the lively Mputu.

The game opened up in first half stoppage time when first Ezurike made a timely tackle inside his box to deny Mazembe once again, while at the other end of the pitch, Osanga lost his footing when all clear on the Congolese goal.

And still in this stoppage time, goalkeeper Austin Brown pulled off a brilliant save when he tipped a diving header from inside the box to ensure there were no goals in the first 45 minutes.

In the 55th minute, Heartland's cup hopes suffered a huge blow when the brilliant Brown was forced to quit the game through injury and was replaced by former youth international Ezenwa, who pulled off a couple of saves before the unfortunate own goal that denied Heartland their first continental honour.

Samm Audu, Goal.com