Harras Hodoud reached the African Confederation Cup group stage for the third successive season after registering a remarkable 8-1 home victory over Botswana's Gaborone United on Saturday. The Egyptian Cup holders went through with an 8-2 aggregate win after suffering a surprise 1-0 defeat in the first leg in Botswana. They made up for their 1-0 loss to Ahli in the Egyptian Super Cup last week. Hodoud's comprehensive win over Gaborone in Alexandria is the biggest in the history of the Confederation Cup, which was formed in 2004 after the African Cup Winners' Cup and the CAF Cup were merged. Tarek Al-Ashri's side needed four minutes to level the aggregate score when a deflected shot from Mohamed Hamed wrong-footed the keeper and found the net. Striker Ahmed Abdul-Ghani doubled the lead seven minutes later when he latched onto a defense-splitting pass from Egypt forward Ahmed Eid to slot home with aplomb. Hamed killed off the game as a contest when he pounced on a loose ball to fire home on the quarter hour mark. Abdul-Ghani also scored his second of the night on 29 minutes with a simple tap-in after a cross-come-shot bounced off the back of a Gaborone defender and fell into his path. Forward Ahmed Mekki added the fifth and sixth goals before halftime with fine individual efforts. Gaborone netted a consolation three minutes into the second half but Hodoud scored two more goals from Mohamed Halim and Mahdi Sobhi to claim a superb win.
