Zambia's Red Arrows have been knocked out of the Confederation Cup

Recreativo Libolo of Angola scored five goals, Zambian Timothy Mbewe snatched a hat-trick and JSM Bejaia of Algeria converted 12 penalties yet all ended as African Confederation Cup failures.

On arguably the most dramatic round of action in the six-year competition, there were 25 goals and 25 successful shootout spot kicks before eight clubs emerged victorious at the weekend.

Heading the list of gallant losers were Libolo, who must have felt all was lost after a four-goal first leg thrashing from Entente Setif in Algeria two weeks ago.

But a fifth-minute goal from Brazilian Reginaldo dos Santos in the town of Calulo south-east of Luanda triggered a remarkable comeback that ended with a 5-1 victory only for Setif to survive on the away-goal rule.

How Dos Santos must rue a late first-half penalty miss as former African champions Setif continued a poor run of form that saw them lose Arab Champions League and Algerian Cup semi-finals within four days.

Zambian air force club Arrows were in a similar position to Libolo as they hosted ENPPI of Egypt and the situation only got worse when Jimmy Chisenga was sent off before half-time.

However, Mbewe scored once in the first half and twice in the second to become joint leading Confederation Cup scorer this year and leave ENPPI hanging on for a 4-3 aggregate success.

Bejaia conceded a late goal in Mali against Stade Malien which took the tie to penalties and the local club triumphed 13-12 after the longest shootout in the history of a competition modelled on the European UEFA Cup.

Title holders CS Sfaxien of Tunisia followed up a two-goal home win over JC Abidjan Treichville with a 1-0 victory in Ivory Coast courtesy of an Abdelkrim Nafti goal 14 minutes from full-time.

Other Tunisian challengers EGS Gafsa were far less successful as they slumped 3-1 at home to Egyptian paramilitary outfit Harras al-Hodoud, who took a three-goal cushion into the return match.

Ahmed Abdelmalek raised his cup goal haul to five as Harras built a three-goal advantage before Gafsa snatched a late consolation goal via a Nabil Missaoui penalty.

Cameroon clubs fared disastrously on the road with Aigle Royal Menoua crashing 5-0 to Bayelsa United of Nigeria in Oghara and Union Douala falling 4-0 to Santos of Angola in Luanda.

Ilunga Diba scored two minutes into the second half as Vita Club of the DR Congo edged sorely weakened Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa 1-0 in Kinshasa following a drawn first encounter.

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