Duncan Omalla of Nairobi United celebrates his goal against Azam during a Caf Confederation Cup group match at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on January 25, 2026.
Nairobi United interim coach Salim Ali has pointed to the team’s lack of continental experience as the main cause of their struggles in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup.
But despite losing their three opening Group “B” matches, Ali insists the dream for a quarter-final berth still burns within the team.
Nairobi’s woes were complicated on Sunday when they lost 2-1 to visiting Tanzanian side, Azam at Nyayo National Stadium, in the match the Kenya side needed to win to genuinely stay in contention.
They had fallen 3-0 to Morocca’s Wydad Athletic Club, and 1-0 to Maniema Union from the Democratic Republic of Congo in their earlier matches and now sit bottom of the table with zero points and a negative four goal difference.
Wydad tops the standings with nine points, after their 1-0 home win against Maniema. The DR Congo outfit is second on six points while Azam are placed third with three points. The top two sides from the four pools advance to the quarter-finals.
Nairobi has three matches to pull off the seemingly impossible – win all of them by big margins and hope other results go their way.
“I believe in football anything can happen,” a defiant Ali, who doubles up as the club’s technical director, said after their loss.
“Azam are beatable in Dar. If we can convert the chances that we had and we minimize mistakes, we will still have a chance. We cannot say it is over,” he added.
Nairobi United's Dancan Omalla goes through a drill during a training session at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on January 24, 2026.
Making their maiden appearance on the continental stage after a fairytale local campaign last season, Nairobi confounded pundits by breezing through the preliminary rounds of the Confed Cup.
They first saw off National Enterprise Corporation of Uganda on away goal rule after a 3-3 aggregate deadlock before upsetting fancied two-time Confederation Cup champions Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia 7-6 on penalty shoot-out after a 2-2 aggregate draw in the second preliminary round to enter the group stage. “When the match was being played, I believe you could see the difference between experience in this tournament and inexperience,” said Ali.
To give Nairobi their dues, they were very competitive in the opening stages scoring as many goals as they were conceding.
They stood toe to toe with Azam in a match that could have gone either way.
Ali said lack of concentration cost them in the match.
After “Naibois” took the lead through a 13th minute sumptuous strike by forward Duncan Omala, Congolese forward Jephte Kitambala capitalised on a poor marking by the host to draw Azam level three minutes later.
An own goal in the 78th minute by Nairobi’s goalkeeper Ernest Mohammed handed the visitors the three points.
“We wanted to win at home. We started by scoring a goal which was very good on our side but because of lapses in concentration, we conceded again,” said Ali.
Although both Nairobi and Azam are making their maiden appearance at the group stage of the Confederation Cup, the Tanzanian side are at his level for the ninth time after debuting in 2013.
While none of the players in Nairobi’s starting lineup against Azam had featured in CAF interclub competitions before this season, at least six players in the starting squad of the Tanzanian side had already achieved this feat. They are goalkeeper Zuberi Masudi, defenders Yoro Diaby, Lusajo Mwaikenda and Pascal Msindo, forward Feisal Abdallah and midfielder Iddi Alli.
Ali said the Nairobi has also been disadvantaged by lack of time to build cohesion.
“The other challenge that Nairobi United has is that we are building a team within the season with the new players. When you look at the matches that are piling up, sometimes we had to build when we were playing. Maybe next week and the coming one, the new signings will step up to the level that we want,”
These new signings who featured in Sunday’s match are Ugandan midfielder Charles Waibi, who replaced injured Ovella Ochieng, midfielder Roy Okal, Ugandan midfielder Titus Ssematimba, Rwandan forward Muhadjiri Hakizimana and ex-Gor Mahia star Benson Omalla.
Ali is hopeful but pragmatic.
“Nairobi have surprised many teams in Kenya. They have worked very hard since last season and there is a very big hope in them. If we fail to get to the next round but get one or two wins on our sides, it will give us hope for the near future and momentum in the league that we can compete with the big clubs in Kenya,” said the coach.
Next up, an away fixture against Azam on Sunday that should be a fair battle for three points, at least from the stand point of Nairobi United.
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