African Champions League: Hearts Win Big

ACCRA, May 7 (Reuters)(DS) - Hearts of Oak (Ghana) 4 Motema Pembe (Democratic Republic of the Congo) 1 African Champions League, second round, first leg
Scorers
Hearts - Stephen Tetteh 33pen, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour 51, 53, Emmanuel Donkor 86.
Motema - Mayala Makueni 62pen.
Halftime: 1-0; Attendance 40,000.

Hearts crush Pembe

By Samuel Ebo Kwaitoo, Daily Graphic
Glorious Accra Hearts of Oaks yesterday extended their typical art of goal harvest onto the continental arena when they overpowered a tough Motema Pembe side with a 4-1 bashing in their first leg champions league final eliminator at the Accra Stadium.
The big scoreline obviously puts Hearts in poll position towards their cherished dream of entering the "money zone" as the Congolese need not less than three solid goals without reply in the second leg to boot out the Ghanaians.
By 2.57pm when the game got underway, the atmosphere was simply electrifying with the Phobian fans chanting some of the team's popular refrains to fire up the players for the task on hand.
By the fifth minute, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour and Emmanuel Adjogu had responsed to the cheers from the stands even though their respective efforts missed from cornerkicks.
But it took only ten minutes for Hearts to realise how daring their opponents could be as in a space of three minutes, young goalkeeper Sammy Adjei in the Hearts post was compelled to come off his line to save two sticky situations from the Congolese attack led by dangerman Yemweni Ngidi.
Realising the daunting nature of the task facing them, Motema goalkeeper and skipper for the side, Mayal Mukweni resorted to some time-washing tricks and Malian FIFA referee Sidi Megassa, who is well remembered for the manner he handled a crucial World Cup qualifier between the Black Stars and the Atlas Lions of Morocco in Rabat in 1997, flashed his yellow card at him in the 16th minute following an earlier warning.
In the 32nd minute, however, all the toil of the Ghanaians on a rather tough afternoon was deservingly rewarded when Osei Kuffour earned them a spot kick after gangling defender Monpongo Lokenge visited on him a savage late tackle in the vital area. Promising young defender Stephen Tetteh converted perfectly from the spot to open the flood gates for yet another goal feast.
With Osei Kuffour sporting white boots which gave him better stability than the slippery one he used in the first half, going through the Congolese defence with such ease like a hot knife goes through butter, the signs were clearly on the wall that it's just a matter of time when more goals would emerge.
Kuffour could not be denied in the 51st minute as he had the easiest of tasks to tap home fast running winger Kenneth Sarpong's cross after Osumanu Amadu's beautiful dummy.
The vociferous Hearts fans responded with a thunderous ovation as usual and yelled for more and hardly had the cheers died down than the fast-improving Kuffour scored his personal second to make the score 3-0. He teased out agile Mukweni after pouncing on a deep Adjogu pass to hit the back of the net.
Immediately after this goal, skipper Mukweni summoned his colleagues to a brief pep-talk which paid off as in the 62nd minute, the visitors in one of their typical fast breaks caught the Hearts defence napping only for Stephen Tetteh to bring down Ngidi for a penalty. Mukweni came all the way from his posts to effect the kick expertly to redeem a goal.
Earlier in the 54th minute, Edmund Copson had replaced injured Sarpong, and minutes after Osumanu Amadu was denied a goal in the 70th minute after Mukweni bravely pushed back his thunderbolt, Hearts' tactician Jones Attuqueyefio replaced the burly striker with hard running Emmanuel Donkor.
And Donkor announced his presence in the game with another easy tap-in goal from a Kuffour pass four minutes from the end.