Watanga FC Crashed Out With Back-Back Defeat in CAF Champions League Preliminary Rounds

By: W. Roland James

Algeria: Liberia's representative in the 2024 CAF Champions League preliminary rounds, Watanga FC, bid farewell in the qualifiers on Thursday, August 22, after conceding a double defeat to Algerian Side MC Alger.

The Liberian club which honored both legs of the qualifiers in Algeria, failed to collect a win, suffering a 2-0 defeat in the first and second legs, respectively, against the Algerian Ligue 1 Champions.

Watanga FC was on a showpiece representing Liberia as the FA first League champions in the 2024 CAF Champions League preliminary rounds after winning the 2023-2024 LFA Orange First Division League in the country.

The CAF Champions League preliminary rounds are qualifiers played by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) member associations' first domestic league champions on first and second rounds basis to determine the final structure for the tournament.

The two-leg defeats have sent a setback to the Watanga's hope in striving with the expectations of writing a history in a journey to reach the main tournament.

However, the Head of Watanga FC Cooper Sannah described his boys encounters against the Algerian Side as a difficult moment, emphasizing the environment and adaptation that his players needed to have adjusted to for the match.

Cooper Sannah in a post-match press conference said: "It was a kind of difficult moment most especially when you look at the environment we come from, West Africa, leaving and coming this side was difficult and we struggled to adapt, but on the overall, we were able to honor the two legs".

"We want to consider this time as a learning curve, but I think when we move forward we will do better than what we did in the qualifies this season".

Meanwhile, Algerian Side MC Alger has progressed to the next stage of the preliminary rounds after having an exciting moment of 4-0 in the aggregate following the second leg result on Thursday at the Mustapha Tchaker Stadium, in Algeria.