CAIRO — Egyptian giants Al-Ahly finished preparations in readiness for their match against Algeria’s ES Setif in the first-leg of CAF Champions League semi-final in Cairo on Saturday at 9:00pm Cairo Local Time, while two-time champions Wydad Club Athletic will be up against Petro de Luanda.
Pitso Mosimane’s side secured their passage to the semis after a hard fight against Raja Casablanca.
Title-holders Al-Ahly hasn’t had the most spectacular run in the Champions League this season, but have nonetheless got the job done in their bid to win a historic third consecutive title.
They finished second in their group and squeezed through into the quarters with a 3-2 aggregate win over Raja Club Athletic.
Al-Ahly has a good record playing the semis, as they have won 11 of their 12 matches in the last four stage, CAF online reported.
This will be the fourth continental meeting between the two sides and Setif boats of a slight edge, having won two and drawn one of those games while Ahly has won once.
Their last meeting was in the 2018 season at this same stage of the competition, with
Ahly edging out a close 3-2 aggregate victory, progressing to the final where they lost to Esperance.
In that match, Ahly won the first-leg 2-0 in Cairo with goals from Walid Soliman and Eslam Mohareb while in the return tie Setif won 2-1, their goals scored by Mohamed Islam Bakir and Houssam Eddine Ghacha. Soliman scored Ahly’s important away goal.
No club are better equipped to deal with semi-final pressure than Ahly, who have won 13 of 24 penultimate-stage matches, drawn seven and lost just four.
Setif are meanwhile looking to upset the odds especially since the arrival of their new coach Darko Novic. Novic faced Ahly in the 2007 season as he was an assistant coach Libyan club Al Ittihad when they lost against Ahly, also in the semis.
Novic is the third coach used by two-time African champions Setif this season after Tunisian Nabil Kouki, axed following a group loss to AmaZulu in South Africa, and Algerian caretaker Redha Bendris.
Petro faces Wydad
This will be a rematch of the last group stage meeting when the Moroccan giants thrashed Petro 5-1 to confirm their place on top of the group.
But as they meet again less than two months after their previous duel, dynamics will be different.
Petro start the two-legged semi at home and will look for the same inspiration that guided them to a 2-1 win when they met in the first leg of the group phases. It was the first win Petro had over Wydad.
Overall in six meetings, Wydad has been the better side, winning four, losing once and drawing once. They have won once in Luanda, their 1-0 victory in last season’s Champions League.
Wydad will look towards their history in the Champions League and seek for better tidings. Though they have reached the semis six times in the last seven seasons, they have gone on to the final only twice, winning in 2017 and losing in the 2018-19 season.
Petro who eliminated pre-tournament favourites Mamelodi Sundowns in the quarter finals will meanwhile look to maximise on their home advantage and earn a favourable result ahead of the trip to Casablanca for the return tie next weekend.
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