Byline: ELVINCE JOSHUA - SPORTS AFRICA

Guinea hammered Namibia 3-0 to take full control of the Group D match of the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) match Tuesday night.

Horoya’s striker Yakhouba Barry hit a first brace of the tournament exclusively reserved for home-based players in an emphatic victory in Kumbe, Cameroon.

Barry’s teammate at Horoya Morlaye Sylla scored the other goal for Syli National who became the first team to score more than two goals in the first round of matches of the tournament.

Barry capitalized on a defensive mistake by Immanuel Heita who tried to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper Edward Maova in the 13th minute, to put the West Africans ahead.

Sylla then doubled the lead with a beautifully curled ball from the edge of the box, just before the break. Barry completed his brace with a late goal in the 86th minute to seal an emphatic victory for Syli National.

Guinea will face a tough Zambian side in their next group match on Saturday while Tanzania, who lost 2-0 to Zambia take on Namibia in the day’s other game.

Namibia coach Bobby Samaria attributed the defeat to “silly mistakes’ which he must rectify before his next clash with an equally wounded Taifa Stars.

“We conceded two goals because of some silly mistakes. There are no excuses here, but we lost to well prepared team of Guinea. We now need to go back to the drawing board to plan for our next game against Tanzania,” Samaria was quoted by Cafonline.

Holders Morocco squeezed a slim 1-0 victory over debutants Togo while Rwanda and Uganda settled for a scoreless draw on Day Three of the Africa Nations Championship in Cameroon, Monday.

In a tournament that has so far produced just four goals in four games and no striker is yet to register his name on the scoresheet, defender Yahya Jabrane converted a first-half penalty to give Morocco a positive start in their title defence.

While Morocco will be ruing the numerous wasted chances, Togo, who are making their first appearance will have goalkeeper  Abdoul-Moubarak Aigba to thank for keeping the scoreline low.

No team has ever scored more that one goal in this year’s tournament. Cameroon beat Zimbabwe by a solitary goal, same as Mali and DR Congo who squeezed a 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso and Congo respectively.

A scoreless result in the East Africa Derby between Rwanda and Uganda was a cabon copy of the result between Libya and Niger. This means that the tourney has just produced four goals out of six matches.

An agile Aigba denied both Walid El Karti and Ayoub El Kaabi six clear chances in a frustrating evening for the Atlas Lions.

The hawk-eyed keeper had saved Jabrane’s first penalty, but the referee called for a retake after Aigba was judged to have moved before the ball was taken.

The Wydad Casablanca centre-back gave Aigba no chance in the retake when he sent the keeper the wrong way after a bruising  27 minutes of action at the Stade de la Reunification.

Karti, Soufiane Kahini and Kaabi all had chances to score for Morocco, but were not in their mood to score.

Togo’s Yendoutie Nane blasted an open chance early in the second half after the West African returned from the break a more aggressive side.

Marouf Tchakel also blew away another golden chance in the 83rd minute when he when he was denied by Morocco’s goalkeeper Anas Zniti, who was also part of the winning squad in 2018.

On the other side of the pitch El Kaabi who won the Golden Boot  2018 edition of this tournament, with nine goals, was also denied at close range by Aigba.

While the defending champions Morocco will be happy by starting the competition with a victory, they will have to rethink their attacking strategy after missing more than six scoring opportunities.