Sunshine Stars of Nigeria shocked JS Kabylie of Algeria 2-1 in the African Confederation Cup this weekend to take a three-point Group B lead.

Salim Hanifi put the ‘Canaries’ ahead in Algiers, Emmanuel Sunday levelled before half-time and Sakibu Atanda snatched the winner 14 minutes before full-time in the second-tier competition.

Sunshine have six points, Noghreb Fes of Morocco three and Kabylie and Daring Club Motema Pembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo none with the top two finishers after a six-round mini-league advancing to the semi-finals.

Kabylie have won six African titles and after three previous home victories in the Confederation Cup this year were favoured to collect maximum points having lost away to Moghreb two weeks ago.

Sunshine from south-western town Akure are playing in Africa for the first time this year and had to wait 12 hours in Mali for a connecting flight and five more in Algiers before Kabylie officials arrived.

Hanifi struck on 18 minutes after a Nigerian was dispossessed on the edge of his penalty area and a low cross took a deflection and was missed by an Algerian before the scorer made no mistake with a low shot past Moses Ocheje.

Sunday burst forward and as four Kabylie defenders closed in, struck a shot that went in off the hands of goalkeeper Malek Asselah, who was also to blame for the winner as he failed to grasp a shot from Atanda, who stabbed home the rebound.

Motema Pembe host Moghreb Sunday when there are also Group A fixtures involving InterClube of Angola and ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast in Luanda and Club Africain of Tunisia and Kaduna United of Nigeria in Tunis.