Nigerian Ezeh is hero as Sudanese club triumph

Anis Boujelbene (L) of al-Ahly fights for the ball against Kouassi Martial of ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast during their African Champions League match in Abidjan. Al-Ahly of Egypt stayed on track for a record third consecutive African Champions League title with a 1-0 victory over ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast today.

Godwin Ezeh was the two-goal hero as Al-Hilal of Sudan gained their first African Champions League Group B points with a 2-0 win over Esperance of Tunisia Sunday.

The stocky Nigerian striker headed the 'Blue Wave' in front after 29 minutes before a capacity 40,000 crowd at Al-Hilal Stadium and struck again two minutes into stoppage time.

It was a fairytale first home appearance in the pool phase of the leading African club competition for Hilal with success lifting them from the bottom of the standings to second place after two rounds.

And victory compensated the Sudanese for a heartbreaking 2-0 loss at title holders Al-Ahly of Egypt two weeks ago when they held their star-studded opponents goalless until five minutes from full-time.

Ahly triumphed 1-0 at ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast earlier Sunday and have six points followed by Hilal with three and Esperance and ASEC with one each in much the tougher of the two mini-leagues.

Former champions Esperance fired French coach Jacky Dugueperoux after being held 0-0 by ASEC in the first round and hired Faouzi Benzarti, who guided arch rivals Etoile Sahel to the Tunisian title this year.

While Benzarti will take some satisfaction from a rousing second-half showing by the 'Blood and Gold', they could fall further behind the pacesetters in mid-July as they must play Ahly in Cairo.

Considered outsiders before the group action began, Hilal may emerge as surprise packets with a disciplined defenders, imaginative midfielders and livewire Nigerian strikers Kelechi Osunwa and Ezeh.

Osunwa created the first goal with a cross that Ezeh headed past Hamdi Kasraoui and the west African ran through unopposed for the second to trigger wild celebrations.