Accra Hearts of Oak beat Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco thanks to a Isaac Mensah 30th minute strike in the CAF Champions League game played at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.
The slim victory has put Hearts in a tight position heading into Sunday’s return encounter, but their head coach anticipates the return from injury of the other trusted players, including Caleb Amankwah, Raddy Ovouka, and Emmanuel Nettey, will beef up and strengthen his team to face the challenge in Casablanca and progress to the next round of the competition.
Isaac Mensah put Accra Hearts of Oak ahead in the 42 minutes when he beat his marker in the penalty box and latched onto a long searching ball, and whipped it beneath goalkeeper Yanis Henin for the opener.
The goal was a product of the Hearts’ dominance but the home side paid a big price for wasting many scoring chances which would have calmed down their coach whose complaints about poor officiating attracted a yellow card by the Angolan referee, Helder Rodrigues de Carvalho.
The referee incurred the displeasure of the home team and supporters for perceived bias after ignoring a penalty claim in each half after Kofi Kodzi and Ibrahim Salifu were brought down in the WAC penalty box.
Wydad also had cause to question the referee’s judgment on the stroke of full time when they scored what looked like a last gasp equalizer through Saimon HappyGod Msuva but the goal was ruled offside by the referee much to the relief of the Hearts fans.
