African Champions’ Cup. 44 teams enrolled, then withdrawals… Benfica (Guinea Bissau) gave up without playing a match in the preliminary round. In the same round Pan African (Tanzania) lost 0-2 in the first leg against Highlanders (Swaziland) and withdrew without playing the second leg. Al-Ittihad (Libya) withdrew in the 1/16 finals without playing. After that no more withdrawals and rather strong teams reached the ½ final – that is, teams from countries with respected for years football in the continent. MP Oran (Algeria) eliminated Nkana Red Devils (Zambia) 0-1 and 5-2 and in the other semifinal Raja Casablanca (Morocco) prevailed over Tonerre Yaounde (Cameroon) 2-0 and 2-2.
So, strong Northern between neighbours: MP Oran vs Raja. To a point, an Algerian final, for Raja had 2 Algerians at hand: their coach, who coached the Algerian national team before joining Raja, Rabah Saadane and the reserve goalkeeper (at least at the final) Nacerdine Drid, who, amusingly enough, arrived from MP Oran and may be that was why he was on the bench at the final. So, it was an Algerian duel of sorts.
The first leg was played in Morocco, the captains Hassan Mouahid (Raja, in green) and Lakhdar Belloumi (MP Oran) shook hands and at the final whistle Raja had one goal advantage, winning 1-0.
In Algeria the home team was stronger, but won only 1-0 and the drama continued – extra time brought no goals; penalty shoot-out followed and in to the great disappointment of the home crowd the Moroccans won 4-2.
MP Oran lost the final after brave fight, but it was bitter loss, for it happened at home. One can be really sorry for Lakhdar Belloumi, one of the best African players at the time and the most famous of those appearing at the final, whether Algerian or Moroccan. A great disappointment, indeed – MP Oran reached the final for the first time and was unable to win it and gave a 4th Cup victory to the country.
Great historic success for one of the biggest Moroccan clubs. Like MP Oran, Raja (Casablanca) reached the Champions’ Cup final for the first time. Unlike their opponents, which had only Algerian players, Raja used foreign talent: along with already mentioned Algerian coach and goalkeeper, they had Senegalese center-forward: Salif Diagne. Extracting victory from a tough final may have been a bit lucky, but ambition and determination was there. Strong nerves too, for they managed to win against hostile home crowd in Algeria. One may speculate about the reasons Drid was on the bench, but most likely it was wise decision – it was not easy to play against fellow Algerians: coach Saadane only recently was coaching Belloumi and others in the campaigns of the Algerian national team. Now he had to beat them… and it was even more difficult for Drid, who played for MP Oran only months before. Algerians beating Algerians for the benefit of Morocco… and right in Algeria at that. But it was done and Raja put its name in the list of Champions’ Cup winners. Their first Cup, making Moroccan victories 2 (FAR Rabat won the Cup in 1985 – the first ever Moroccan victory in the tournament).
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