Sunday, October 25, 2026 • Al-Merrikh bid farewell to the CAF Champions League from the second preliminary round, losing on penalties 3-5 to Guinea's Horoya Conakry on Saturday evening at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, despite winning in regular time by a single goal to nil scored by substitute Mohamed Qabbani to equal the first-leg loss by a single goal to nil, with the two teams tied 1-1 on aggregate; Daba Sogoba missed a penalty for Al-Merrikh, leaving the team absent from the group stage for the fourth consecutive time (Source: winwin website and Nafaj News, October 25, 2026) • Al-Hilal hosts at six in the evening today, Sunday, Sidama Buna of Ethiopia at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, in the second leg of the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League, with the advantage of its first-leg win by two goals to nil; the Blue Wave maintains an unbeaten record in the preliminary rounds across 15 matches in the previous three editions and three matches in the current edition, in which it kept clean sheets, while its captain Mohamed Abdel Rahman (Ghorbal) is one goal away from equalling Bakri Al-Madina's record of 19 goals as the all-time top scorer for Sudanese clubs in the competition; the match is broadcast on the Blue Nile and Al-Balad channels and the club's platforms (Source: winwin website, October 24, 2026, and Sudan Horizon, October 25, 2026) • Al-Merrikh's elimination sparked wide reactions today, Sunday, as the result placed the club's management and technical staff under increasing pressure, amid reports of a series of administrative and technical errors that wasted an opportunity that had seemed within reach to reach the group stage, including the focus on foreign professionals who did not provide the expected addition and the insistence on keeping coach Darko Novic despite his failure to address the attacking crisis that accompanied the team last season (Source: winwin website, October 25, 2026)

— Sports Desk