Al-Ahly of Egypt was the last to qualify, after 7 teams secured qualification after the fifth and penultimate round, and they are Wydad and Al-Raja from Morocco, Tunisian Esperance, JS Kabylie and Chabab Belouizdad from Algeria, in addition to Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Simba of Tanzania..
The draw for the quarter-finals will be held next Wednesday in Cairo, at exactly eight thirty in the evening, the Egyptian capital time.
Tough draw
- The qualified teams will be divided into two levels, in the first pot the first-ranked teams leading the four groups, while the four second-place teams from the other teams are in the other pot..
- The Moroccan teams Al-Raja and Al-Wadad, the Tunisian Esperance Club, and the South African Sundowns are in the first classification, while the Egyptian Al-Ahly, the Tanzanian Simba, and the Algerian youth of Belouizdad and JS Kabylie are in the second classification..
- The classification may be modified after considering the complaint of Al-Merreikh Al-Sudanese against Al-Taraji, under the pretext that the Tunisian champion made 4 substitutions, in the match that ended with the victory of Al-Taraji with a clean goal..
- And if the Confederation of African “K” punishes the Esperance team by losing the match, it will finish second in the group, to be in the second classification, and the youth of Belouizdad will rise instead in the first pot..
- The same teams from the same group will not face each other in the quarter-finals, as the Moroccan Wydad, the defending champion, is waiting for one of the Egyptian Al-Ahly teams, the Tanzanian Simba, and the Belouizdad youth..
- The round of 8 will witness at least two Arab clashes, and it may increase to 3 Arab confrontations, if Sundowns collides with Simba the Tanzanian..
The quarter-final matches will be held “back and forth” from 21 to 29 April, where the runners-up will host the first-leg match, while the return leg will be held at the stadium of the first-place team..
The semi-finals will be held from 12 to 20 May. As for the final match, it will be held this season in a home-and-away system after canceling one match after last season’s final crisis between Wydad and Al-Ahly..
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