Al-Ahly eyeing 11th continental title

Al-Ahly SC will face Tunisia’s Espérance ST in the semi-finals of CAF Champions League on Friday.
The match will be played in Tunisia, but the two teams will have their second encounter in Cairo.
Record winners Al-Ahly made it to a sixth consecutive semi-final of CAF Champions League after holding off for a 0-0 draw with Morocco’s Raja Club Athletic in Casablanca last week.
The result sees Al-Ahly go through 2-0 on aggregate, as they won by the same score line in the first leg which was played in Cairo.
Tunisian giants Espérance also reached the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League, after being held to a 1-1 draw at home against Algerian side JS Kabylie.
The home side dominated the second-leg at the Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi and advanced 2-1 on aggregate after the tight game in Rades.
The Tunisian giants advanced thanks to their 1-0 first-leg win over their opponents in the first-leg of the quarter-final tie.
In the last edition of the championship, Al-Ahly faced a painful loss in the final after Moroccan Wydad beat them 2-0 in a match that raised a lot of controversy, in the light of playing the final in Casablanca.
That makes the Red Devils ambitious to excel in the current edition and clinch the cup for the 11th time.
Al-Ahly achieved the first African title in 1982, when they met Asante Kotoko in the final of the tournament.
The first-leg match was held in Cairo and ended with a 3-0 score for the red team.
As for the second-leg match, it was held in Kumasi and ended in a tie between the two teams, making the total goals 4-1 for Al-Ahly. This gave the team their first African title.
The second championship that Al-Ahly won was against Al-Hilal of Sudan. The two teams met in the first-leg. However, this was a goalless draw. The second-leg, which was held in Cairo, was decisive. It ended with Al-Ahly winning after scoring two clean goals.
In 2001, the CAF Champions League final was held between Al-Ahly and South Africa’s Sun Downs.
The first-leg match was held in Pretoria, and ended in a positive draw with a goal for each team, while the return match was held in Cairo and ended with three clean goals for the Red Devils, bringing the total goals to 4-1.
Al-Ahly Club clinched its fourth African title in 2005, after defeating ES Sahel of Tunisia in the return match 3-0, after the first leg had witnessed a goalless draw between the two teams in Sousse.
2006 witnessed the crowning of Al-Ahly Club with the fifth championship in the African journey, where the Egyptian team met Tunisia’s Sfaxien in the final.
The first-leg match was held in Cairo and ended with a positive draw between the two teams with a goal for each team, while the return match came to witness the crowning of the red team with the African title after it ended with a goal for Al-Ahly.
Al-Ahly SC were on a date with their sixth African title, after defeating Cameroon’s Cotton team in the first-leg of the African final in 2008. Al-Ahly won with two goals without a response from the opposing team.
This helped it confidence in the return match that was held in Garoua. This match ended with two goals for each team, bringing the total goals to 4-2 for Al-Ahly, adding another championship to their record.
Al-Ahly’s first confrontation with Espérance ST was in the final of the African Champions League in 2012, where the two teams met in the first leg of the tournament final in Alexandria, and the match ended in a positive draw with a goal for each team. The return match witnessed Al-Ahly’s victory with two goals to one, giving the Egyptian team the title outside its home country.
In 2013, Al-Ahly met Orlando in Johannesburg in the first-leg of the Champions League final, which also ended in a positive draw, with a goal for Al-Ahly and the same for the opposing team.
In the second-leg, Al-Ahly had the upper hand at the Arab Contractors Stadium, when it defeated Orlando with two clean goals, announcing the addition of another championship to its championships stock.
Al-Ahly achieved the title in 2020 by defeating its traditional rivals Zamalek with two goals to one in the meeting that brought the two teams together at Cairo Stadium. This was the first African final to be held between two teams from the same country and in one match.
Al-Ahly won its last African Champions League title in 2021 at the expense of South African Champion Kaizer Chiefs. This raised the total number of championships won by the team to ten.