Harambee Stars midfielder Duke Abuya’s dream of playing in the quarterfinals of the CAF Champions League have been crashed after his side Yanga SC were eliminated from the competition.Yanga were tossed out of the lucrative tournament following the barren draw against MC Alger at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on Saturday. Abuya was an unused substitute in the game as Yanga head coach Sead Ramovic made two changes in the second half of the game. ##NAJAVA_MECA_8640780##The German tactician introduced Pacome Zouzoua and Clatous Chama in the 46th and 68th minutes of the game for Kennedy Musonda and Mudathir Yahya respectively. The Tanzanian champions needed maximum points to book a place in the knockout stages of the tournament but were frustrated by the visiting team, sharing points in the end.Despite enjoying large spells of dominance and support from home fans, Yanga appeared to run short of ideas and creativity in the final third, thanks to the rock-solid human wall mounted by Alger.##NAJAVA_MECA_8640806##Coupled with time-wasting antics, Alger displayed top-of-the-drawer discipline especially out of position and ensured they had sufficient numbers behind the ball throughout. Kenya working round the clock to complete stadia despite CHAN postponementFollowing the result, Alger joins Al Hilal of Sudan in qualifying from Group A of the group stages with Yanga and former champions TP Mazembe crashing out.Yanga finished third in the group with eight points with Mazembe rooted to the bottom despite whipping Hilal 4-0 in Kinshasa in the final match. Apart from Hilal and Alger, Orlando Pirates of South Africa, FAR Rabat of Morocco and Esperance of Tunisia are already in the last eight.Defending champions Al Ahly and Pyramids FC of Egypt are also in the quarters of the top-tier continental inter-club tournament.Soweto Derby pitting Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates sold out two weeks to gameAbuya joined Yanga in July last year from Singida Black Stars and was largely used in the preliminary rounds and initial group-stage matches of the Champions League.Having crashed out of the tournament, Yanga will turn focus on defending the league crown and stretching their recent tally to four straight crowns. The exit of Yanga from continental matches leaves Simba as the sole Tanzanian club in CAF matches as Wekundu wa Msimbazi are in the last eight of the Confederation Cup.
