Accra, March 2, GNA - Accra Hearts of Oak managed a 3-1 victory over the FC 105 of Gabon in the second leg of the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Champions League competition at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra on Sunday.

But it was not enough for the Phobians to advance to the next stage of the competition, having lost 3-0 in the first leg in Libravile, Gabon a fortnight ago.

The Gabonesse have thus qualified for the next stage of the competition on a 4-3 aggregate.

Hearts entered the game with the aim of enacting the 1979 miracle and the first goal scored in the 22nd minute through Micheal Asante, who connected Eric Gawu's cross to beat goalkeeper Claude Bakale. The goal obviously pointed to the much expected miracle but the quality of materials at the disposal of the Phobians was just not up to the required standard to repeat such a feat.

The Hearts set up lacked the fighting spirit and character to perform such a daunting task.

It failed to set the tone for the predicted 4-0 score line, as the Phobians failed to penetrate the defence of the visitors with an attacking machinery headed by neophytes like Solomon Amoasi and Samuel Affum, backed by Gawu and Asante.

The hearts attack could not perform the simplest tasks of good ball control and accurate passing of the ball for the needed penetration. Affum and Amoasi on the day proved that they had the potential to blossom into quality players but were not ripe for continental games such as the CAF Champions League.

Every attack initiated by the Phobians met a premature death before entering the defensive third of the opponents.

The Gabonesse, on the other hand ensured that the tempo of the game was calmed on every occasion.

In spite of this, they created two decent chances in the dying minutes of the half but Michael Bruison and Mve Minsta Claude Cedric seemed not prepared to convert the chances, leaving the score line in favour of the home team.

In the second half, Cedric made amends in 56th minute, as he tapped in a lose ball that fell onto his path, deep in the vital area of Hearts, following the inability of the Ghanaians' defence men to make a first clearance of the ball.

Though the goal seemed to have taken the steam out the Phobians, they managed to reorganize themselves and raided the area of the Gabonesse on countless occasions in search of goals. The pressure was intensified in the last quarter of the game when the Phobians capitalized a numerical disadvantage on the part of the Gabonese after Fabrice Mbandinga was shown the exit for a second bookable offence.

Kofi Abanga scored his first champions league goal for the Ghanaian champions on 82 minutes and what a goal it was!

Abanga's 15-yard shot zoomed straight into the net for the second goal to spur the Phobians on for the more.

On the stroke of regulation time, Hearts benefited from a penalty when a defender of FC 105 handled the ball in the vital area and Francis Bossman expectedly converted for the Phobians to give them a 3-1 victory and an early exit from the competition.