South Africans Gift Links and Relebohile Mofokeng both saw their respective clubs slip out of this season’s UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, beaten in the third preliminary round and now dropping down to the Europa League.
Links, who recently renewed his contract at Danish champions Aarhus, was taken off in the second half as his side were handed a 4-0 thrashing away in Azerbaijan by Sabah, the club that Kaizer Chiefs defender Aden McCarthy recently joined.
McCarthy was again an unused substitute as Sabah secured a 5-2 aggregate triumph and moved through to the two-legged playoffs, where they will meet either Hapoel Be’er Sheva of Israel or former European champions Red Star Belgrade from Serbia to decide a place in the group phase proper.
Mofokeng, who scored on his league debut for Belgium’s Union Saint Gilloise on Saturday, was brought on for extra time as his side were level 2-2 with Bodo/Glimt away in Norway but eventually lost.
Mofokeng was not used in last week’s first leg in Belgium which ended in a 3-3 draw but with the tie going to extra time with the two sides level on aggregate, he would have hoped to make a decisive impact, as he did in the Belgian Super Cup in his first appearance for his new club after his move from Orlando Pirates.
But it was the home side who scored three minutes before the tie would have gone to penalties to put Bodo/Glimt through to the playoffs.