CAF Champions League
Egypt’s Al Ahly produce emphatic away win in Champions League semi
A double from striker Percy Tau and a third goal from Mahmoud Kahraba handed Egypt’s Al Ahly a runaway 3-0 away triumph over Esperance of Tunisia in the first leg of their African Champions League semi-final on Friday.
Tau, the South African international who previously played at Brighton & Hove Albion, opened the scoring with a left-footed drive after eight minutes and doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half as the Cairo club made a giant stride in their bid to reach next month’s final.
Kahraba applied the final touch to a swift counter-attack in the 75th minute to add a third goal and leave Esperance with a near impossible task in next weekend’s return in Cairo.
Friday’s game was played behind closed doors as punishment for crowd violence when Esperance beat JS Kabylie of Algeria in their quarter-final last month.
Al Ahly are Africa’s most successful club with 10 previous Champions League titles and have reached five of the last six finals. They were runners-up to Wydad Casablanca last year.
Wydad host Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday.
-Reuters
Enugu Rangers’ patchy form in the CAF Champions League continues as they struggled to beat visiting Angola’s Sagrada Esperance 1-0 in the first leg match played at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
It was in similar fashion that they played against Union Sportive de Zilimadjou of Comoros Islands who they beat 2-1 over two legs in Uyo.
Rangers’ lone goal was scored by Kazeem Ogunleye in the 80th minute.
CAF Champions League
VIDEO: Controversial penalty kick remains a talking point in Remo Stars’ elimination
But for the questionable penalty kick awarded for AS FAR of Morocco in the 78th minute of the tension-soaked CAF Champions League duel with Remo Stars on Sunday in Rabat, the complexion of the final result as well as the aggregate scorelines may have been different.
Match scoreline stood at 1-1 before the referee, Adissa Abdul Raphiou Ligali of Benin Republic, who was midway to the centre circle suddenly blew his whistle and awarded a penalty kick to the hosts.
Before then, all body contacts had been ruled against Remo Stars. Even, the Moroccans looked amused when the referee, who was off the scene suddenly ran into the penalty area and awarded a penalty kick for an incident, even if it were an infraction, happened outside the penalty box.
The award of the penalty kick and the conversion by El Amine Zouhzouh, literaly sealed Remo Stars thin hope of advancing.
The Nigerian side left it too late as they only came out to attack after their hopes had been sealed.
In starting the crucial match, their lead scorer, Sikiru Alimi and assist master, Sodiq Ismail were brought in only after the damage had been done. It was after the first goal in the 51st minute that Alimi was brought in in the 54th minute.
Nigeria’s champions, Enugu Rangers have been drawn against Grupo Desportivo Sagrada Esperança of Angola in the next round of the CAF Champions League.
The fixtures come up next month with Enugu Rangers hosting the first leg on 13 September.
The return leg holds on 20 September. Enugu Rangers advanced after eliminating Comoros Islands’ US Zilimadjou.
Grupo Desportivo Sagrada Esperança better known as G.D. Sagrada Esperança advanced after seeing off Saint-Louis Suns United of Seychelles on a 4-0 aggregate.
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