Cairo (AFP)
Al-Ahly of Egypt reserved its seat in the final of the African Champions League football competition, for the fourth consecutive season, after it renewed its victory over its guest, Esperance de Tunis, 1-0, on Friday, at Cairo International Stadium, in the second leg of the semi-final round of the continental championship.
And the first-leg confrontation in Rades had known the Egyptian team’s superiority by three goals for free.
Al-Ahly holds the record for the number of titles in the tournament with ten, and hopes to enhance its balance when it faces the qualifier from the Moroccan Wydad Athletic Club, who is a guest on South African Mamelodi Sundowns this afternoon, Saturday, after they tied the first leg with a negative result in Casablanca.
Whoever is the second party in the final, Al-Ahly, who will play the sixteenth final in its history, will seek revenge, as Wydad deprived it last season of the third title in succession and the eleventh in its history, by winning the final 2-0, scored by Zuhair Al-Mutraji, while the Egyptian team suffered this. The season for the worst loss of the season against the South African team 2-5.
Swiss Wydad coach Marcel Kohler missed some of his main cards due to injury, especially goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shennawy due to a muscle problem, as Ali Lotfi participated in his place.
While the “Bab Souika” team was led by coach Anas Al-Busaidi, who took over the helm temporarily after the resignation of coach Nabil Maaloul, as the team played in the absence of a large group of its main players, especially goalkeeper Moez bin Sharifia and Ghilan Al-Shaalali, Algerian defender Riyad bin Ayad and Libyan winger Hamdo Al-Huni.
However, the Tunisian team started attacking, hoping to seize its first goal, while the Egyptian team was more calm as it absorbed the pressure of the visiting team, and tried to surprise it, as South African Percy Tau passed to Mahmoud Abdel Moneim “Kahraba”, who hit the crossbar, but the Mauritanian referee Dahan Beda declared offside (5).
After the two teams exchanged opportunities, Hussein Al-Shahat opened the scoring for the landowners, when he singled himself out and hit a powerful ball to the left of goalkeeper Muhammad Sidqi Al-Dabashi, taking advantage of a cunning pass from South African Percy Tau (22).
With this decisive pass, Tao contributed to nine goals for the Egyptian team, in the last seven matches in the continental championship, with four goals and five assists.
The Tunisian team started the second half of the match attacking, but its danger was negative in the goal of goalkeeper Ali Lotfi, and the “Al-Qarn Club” gradually regained the initiative with control of the midfield.
The “Al-Makshakha” team almost equalized through a header from Muhammad Ali Bin Hamouda, which was brilliantly saved by the Egyptian goalkeeper into a corner (65).
And the Algerian defender of Esperance, Mohamed Amin Togay, shone in blocking a powerful shot from Al-Shahat alone, turning it into a corner, depriving Al-Ahly of consolidating the score (68).
Coach Koehler made changes to his squad with the aim of resting some of the main players, such as Tao, Al Shahat and Hamdi Fathi, and Yasser Ibrahim shot a powerful ball from outside the penalty area that passed over the crossbar (87).
Kahraba tried again to consolidate the score, but his shot went over the goal (90 + 1).
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