Record Kenyan champions Gor Mahia have a mountain to climb in the return leg of the CAF Champions League second round after succumbing to a heavy 6-0 beating away to Algerian side CR Belouizdad in the opening leg played on Saturday.
The one-sided result now leaves K’Ogalo needing to do the impossible of overturning the results for them to reach the elusive group stages of the African Champions League since they need to thrash the North Africans 7-0 when they host the Algerians for the second leg on either January 5-6, 2021 in Nairobi.
The Kenyan side will be relegated to the CAF Confederation Cup play-off round if they fail to overturn the deficit.
The Kenyan team’s misfortunes began even before the game and they may have lost the match without kicking a ball after the troubles that surrounded them.
First Gor had to write to CAF to postpone the tie that was scheduled for Wednesday, December 23 because the Algerian airspace was closed, their plea was granted. However, this meant that they had little time to prepare for the crunch since the team arrived on the eve of the match, hence less time to acclimatize.
Secondly, Gor players were on a go-slow, demanding their salary arrears which resulted in the team travelling without their key players like Nicholas Kipkirui, skipper Kenneth Muguna and experienced midfielders Bernard Ondiek and John Ochieng’.
