RADES —South African international Percy Tau struck a brace as Mahmoud Abdel-Moneim ‘Kahraba’ added the third as record winners Al-Ahly of Egypt defeated Tunisia’s Esperance 3-0 to put one foot into the final of the CAF Champions League.
The victory by the Egyptian giants away in Rades puts them well on course for another consecutive final as they only need to avoid defeat in the return fixture next Friday at Cairo International Stadium.
“I am happy with the victory and the performance. We had a strong start and scored early in the game but we allowed Esperance to have the possession in most of the first-half,” Al-Ahly coach Marcel Koller said.
“I spoke with the players at half time to stay focused and they had an incredible second half. We are not in the final yet. We have a good advantage but we still have another match to play in Cairo after one week,” Koller wxplained.
Al-Ahly is Africa’s most successful club with 10 previous Champions League titles.
They have reached five of the last six finals. They were runners-up to Wydad Casablanca of Morocco last year.
The 10-time African champions who scraped through the group stages by the skin of their teeth have been a completely different animal in the knockout phases, and they once again showed their might with a brilliant performance in the North African derby.
They needed just eight minutes to settle their nerves with an early goal, Tau scoring the first of his two with a low drive after he was left unmarked on the right, receiving a pass from Kahraba.
The Tunisian giants had a chance to claw back level in the 13th minute but Moataz Zaddem saw his header from close range pushed to the bar by goalkeeper Mohamed el-Shenawy.
“We haven’t won the tie yet. We won the first leg but we have a second game after one week at home,” El-Shenawy said.
“Esperance is a big team and we prepared for them very well. I am happy with the victory. We will celebrate tonight and tomorrow we will start preparing for the second-leg.”
Ahly should have made it 2-0 in the 26th minute when Kahraba was sent through on goal brilliantly by Tau, but he placed his effort wide with only the keeper to beat.
The game was played behind closed doors as punishment for crowd violence when Esperance beat JS Kabylie of Algeria in their quarter-final last month.
In the second-half, Esperance was off faster off the blocks, but were stunned just 10 minutes after the restart when Tau scored a brilliant curled effort from the edge of the box, after feinting his shots severally to find space.
Esperance had chances, Mohamed Ben Hamouda seeing a header fly inches wide while Mohamed Ben Romdhane had an overhead kick off a corner well saved by El-Shenawy.
The hosts piled pressure on Ahly as they sought to get back into the game but while they pushed bodies forward to get an equalizer, they left spaces behind and were punished with Ahly scoring the third 15 minutes to time.
Off a text book counter attack, Malian midfielder Aliou Dieng sent winger Hussein el-Shahat through on the left, the latter drilling a low cross into the box with Kahraba tapping it home at the backpost.
With a three-goal advantage away from home, Ahly had the job done and the hosts couldn’t get a way back.
Al-Ahly booked their spot in the semi-finals after securing a 2-0 win over Morocco’s Raja Casablanca on aggregate in a quarter-final tie and they are unbeaten in their last four games in the Champions League.
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