Enugu Rangers are out of the CAF Champions League. MC Alger beat the NPFL champions 3-0 at the Ali La Pointe Stadium in Algiers on Friday night. That overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit and settled the second preliminary round tie 3-2 on aggregate.

All three goals came after the break. Collapse is the word.

How the lead slipped away in Algiers

Rangers took a two-goal cushion to Algeria after Kenneth Igboke's penalty and a late James Emo strike settled the first leg in Abeokuta on Sunday 18 October. For close to an hour on Friday, the plan held. Chahreddine Boukholda broke through two minutes before the hour mark, finishing at the back post, and the pressure on Fidelis Ilechukwu's side grew from there.

The Rangers goalkeeper looked to have kept the tie alive midway through the second half when he saved a penalty from Mohamed Bangoura. Bangoura made amends six minutes from time, scoring from close range to level the aggregate at 2-2, and Soufiane Bayazid then met a set piece at the near post in stoppage time to complete the comeback, according to Daily Trust and Complete Sports.

No red cards were reported on the night.

History repeats itself, almost to the goal

After the first leg, Afrik-Foot spotted a striking precedent. The 2-0 win in Abeokuta mirrored Rangers' victory over the same opponents in the 1976 African Cup of Champions Clubs semi-final. Back then, MC Alger also won 3-0 in Algiers, went through 3-2 on aggregate and lifted the trophy.

Fifty years later the scorelines are identical. The pain is too.

The club have now made five attempts since 2006 to reach the group stage of the modern Champions League and failed every time, the outlet noted, which is why it framed Friday's loss as the continuation of a 20-year jinx for a club that reached the continental final in 1975.

The confidence before kick-off made the fall harder. Chief executive Amobi Ezeaku told The Guardian on arrival in Algeria: “We won't face anything. We will play and win them in Algiers.” Ilechukwu had sounded more careful. Sports247 reported his warning that “we must approach the return leg like we are two goals down.”

What it means for Nigerian football

Complete Sports noted that Nigeria now has no representative in the Champions League group phase, with Rivers United already gone in the first preliminary round. There is no safety net in the Confederation Cup either. Its second round ran on the same dates, with the 16 winners going straight into the group stage. El-Kanemi Warriors went out too. They lost 2-0 to Raja Casablanca at the Mohammed V Stadium on Friday, a 4-2 aggregate defeat. BoldSports summed it up bluntly: no Nigerian club will play in the group stage of either CAF competition this season, a stark outcome for a league that had real hope of breaking through to the group stage after the Abeokuta result, which now looks like a false dawn rather than a turning point for the NPFL.

Rangers now return to domestic duty. The Oriental derby against Enyimba is always a measure of the mood in Enugu. Our preview of the trip to Algiers covered the security worries around the tie. The wider picture at the club, from wages to the stadium, is in our Enugu Rangers salary and stadium guide.

This article was most recently revised and updated 19 seconds ago