NAIROBI, Kenya, September 13, 2026 – The coach of Sudanese side Al Ahli Madani has blamed ‘lack of oxygen’ for Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Tusker in the second leg of their Caf Confederations Cup preliminary encounter at Nyayo Stadium.
Aliyu Zubairu says his players struggled to deal with the high altitude in the capital hence could not contain the brewers for 90 minutes.
“Kenya weather, sometimes you don’t have enough oxygen. When you are coming from where you have enough oxygen and you go to where there’s not enough oxygen, there’s definitely kind of a natural effect that will affect you. Some of the midfielders could not play very well because of this,” the Nigerian said.
The Sudanese giants came into the second leg, buoyed by their comeback in the first leg in Kigali, a week ago, when they hauled themselves from two goals down to claim a draw.
Despite their inferior quality on paper, they did well to match the brewers in every department for close to 70 minutes before capitulating to Chris Erambo’s volley from the edge of the box.
Zubairu admitted they paid the price for failing to capitalise on their own chances.
“Football is all about winning and losing. It’s either you win, you draw or you lose. Every country that comes to participate in the competition is a good team. We came, we played, and we did not use our own chances. Tusker got their own chances and made use of it,” he said.
As Julien Mette’s charges march on in the competition, Zubairu and Co will go back to the drawing board to begin their quest for another continental slot come next season.
