Gor Mahia are through to the first round of the CAF Champions League following a 1-1 draw away to Leones Vegetarianos in Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.

K’Ogalo as Gor is nicknamed carried a healthy 2-0 first half win into the return match and needed any draw, a 1-0 loss or any win to sail through to the penultimate round before the groups’ stage.

The hosts managed to squeeze in a 1-0 lead on the stroke of half time but Gor restored parity deep into the second half from an own after sustained pressures to secure a 1-3 aggregate victory over Leones.

The Kenyans book a date with Tunisia’s Esperance du Tunis in the next round. Esperance thumped Mauritania’s ASAC Concorde 5-0 to win 6-1 on aggregate at the preliminary stage.

Gor and Esperance are not strangers as they clashed at the same stage in 2014 with Esperance winning 3-2 in Nairobi and 5-0 in Tunis.

In 1987, Gor edged Esperance on away goal’s rule to win the CAF Winners’ Cup that was then known as Mandela Cup.