A new season of African club competition gets underway this weekend with both Orlando Pirates and Durban City in action in the first round of the African Champions League and African Confederation Cup respectively.
Pirates will be looking to advance to the lucrative group phase of the Champions League after last season having crashed out in the second round of the preliminaries to St Eloi Lupopo of the Democratic Republic of Congo .
They begin this weekend away in Mauritius against La Cure Waves in what should be an easy challenge and at the same time will be keeping an eye on the tie between Gabon’s Mangasport and Namibia’s African Stars.
Should Pirates win, they will take on the Gabon or Namibia champions for a place in the group phase.
African Stars will host the second leg against Mangasport at Atteridgeville on 12 September because there is no adequate ground available in Namibia, which will make it easy for Pirates’ analysts to scout the sides.
It is the same with Lesotho’s Lijabatho, whose Champions League first round, second leg tie the same day is being played at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto. They take on Madagascar’s Centre de Formation de Football Andoharanofotsy.
Pirates are past continental champions, winning in 1993 before the introduction of the Champions League format, and more recently were runners-up in 2013 and semifinalists two seasons ago.
The Bucanners play the first leg of their tie against their Mauritius counterparts at Saint Pierre on Sunday with a 3:30pm local time kick-off time (1:30pm SA).
Durban City are making their debut in continental competition and begin at home on Sunday against Rukinzo of Burundi at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The return leg is one week later on 13 September at Bujumbura and the winner takes on either AS Port Louis 2000 from Mauritius or Jwaneng Galaxy of Botswana in the second knockout round to decide a place in the group phase.
Holders Mamelodi Sundowns have a bye into the second round of the Champions League preliminaries while Kaizer Chiefs have a bye into the second round of Confederation Cup.