CAIRO — Egyptian giants Al-Ahly will take on Moroccan rivals Wydad Athletic Club in first-leg of the CAF Champions League final on Sunday, with the Red Devils seeking a record extending 11th African crown.
The two sides clash in the first-leg at Cairo International Stadium Sunday, before facing off in the return fixture in Casablanca, Wydad’s venue of last year’s conquest, a week from then.
The duel being a repeat of last year’s final when Wydad edged them out 2-0 in Casablanca to clinch the crown. This will also be the third time that the two rivals are facing off in the final.
This is the fourth time in a row that Ahly is playing the final of the CAF Champions League, and the eighth in 12 years, underlying their status as one of the strongest teams in the continent.
With five goals so far this season in the CAF Champions League, Mahmoud Abdel Moneim, known fondly as ‘Kahraba’, is undoubtedly one of Al-Ahly’s important figures.
The Egyptian international is considered one of the most important players in coach Marcel Kohler’s set up and his partnership with winger Hussein el-Shahat and South African winger Percy Tau has formed an incredible front three in Ahly’s campaign this term. Between them, they have scored nine goals with both Tau and El-Shahat scoring four.
Four of Kahraba’s goals came in the group stage, including a hat trick in their 4-0 win away to Cotonsport of Cameroon. He also scored once in the 3-0 first leg semi-final victory over Esperance.
Ahly was drawn in a tough Group B where they would face off with South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, Sudan’s Al-Hilal and Cameroon’s Cotonsport.
They just but managed to squeeze into the quarter-finals after qualifying on the final day with a 3-0 win over Al-Hilal. They edged the Sudanese side out on head to head record. Hilal would have completed the job in the previous match day, had they converted a last minute penalty against Sundowns.
The Egyptian giants only lost two matches in the group, 5-2 against Sundowns and 1-0 against Hilal both away from home.
They drew with the South Africans in Cairo (2-2) and beat Cameroon’s Cotonsport home (4-0) and away (3-0).
In the last eight, Al-Ahly edged out Morocco’s Raja Club Athletic, winning 2-0 in Cairo and drawing 0-0 in Casablanca to progress to the semi-finals.
They would face Tunisia’s Esperance in the semis, and they finished off the job in the first leg in Rades where they won 3-0 and wrapped it up with a 1-0 victory at home in Cairo for a 4-0 aggregate score.
Elsewhere, Morocco’s Wydad is seeking to win their fourth CAF Champions League title.
The Moroccans are facing Ahly in the final for the third time and in the previous two, they have emerged champions. When they met in 2017 in a two-legged final, they drew 1-1 in Cairo and won 1-0 in Casablanca. They hope to be third time lucky this season as well.
Wydad was drawn in Group A where they faced off with JS Kabylie of Algeria, Angola’s Petro de Luanda and DR Congo’s AS Vita Club.
They finished top of the group with 13 points off four wins, a draw and a loss.
In the quarter-finals, Wydad was made to work by Tanzanian giants Simba SC, before beating them 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw. They lost 1-0 in Dar es Salaam before winning by the same margin at home in Casablanca.
They also had to work their socks off in the semis, as they edged out South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns on the away goal rule. They played to a 0-0 draw at home in Morocco, before fighting for a 2-2 stalemate in Pretoria to sneak through to the final.
