The fate of Coton Sport of Garoua hangs on a knife edge as they played a goalless draw against Berekum Chelsea on Sunday at the Golden City Park stadium in Ghana in a match counting for the away leg 8th final of the prestigious African Champions League. Coton Sports therefore has to be careful about the away goal advantage when they receive Berekum Chelsea in the return leg, in a fortnight at the Roumde Adja stadium in Garoua. However, the score is a heroic achievement from Coton Sport given that Berekum Chelsea had never gone without scoring since the beginning of the competition and are very dangerous at home having scored eight goals in two matches. In the round of 16, Berekum Chelsea walloped Raja Casablanca 5-0.
Meanwhile, Coton Sport has what it takes to lift the challenge, having had a long experience in the competition and will be playing in front of their home crowd in Garoua. More so, it is not the first time Coton Sport has found themselves in a difficult position in the competition and come out. They sailed through to the 16th finals by a hair’s breadth surviving by the away goal advantage. After being humbled 1-2 by Heartlands of Nigeria in the away leg encounter, Coton beat their opponent in the return leg 1-0 to through after on away goal advantage after both sides were tied on 2-2 on aggregate. There is however, a glimmer of hope for Coton in that Berekum Chelsea doesn’t perform well on away field but the Ghanaian side still remains a formidable strike force that needs top be feared. Reports say, Coton was lucky to have come back from Ghana with a draw as Chelsea dominated the encounter and came close to scoring on two occasions. Prudence therefore should be the watch-word.
