Al-Ahly of Egypt defeats Esperance and reaches the final of the African Champions League

Al-Ahly qualified for the final of the African Football Champions League, after it succeeded in defeating its rival, Esperance de Tunis, 1-0, today, Friday, in the second leg of the semi-finals, to qualify by defeating it 4-0 in the aggregate of the two matches.

Al-Ahly defeated Esperance 3-0 in the first leg last week in Rades, Tunisia, to reach the final match of the African Champions League for the fourth time in a row.
Hussein Al-Shahat gave Al-Ahly the lead in the 22nd minute, after he received a long pass from South Africa’s Percy Tau.

Al-Ahly will meet in the final with the winner of the Moroccan Wydad and Mamelodi Sundowns teams, where they will meet tomorrow, Saturday, in the second leg of the semi-final.
The two teams tied goalless in the first leg match that was held last Saturday in Morocco.

Al-Ahly dominated the rhythm of the game at the start of the first half, until it succeeded in achieving the goal of progress in the middle of the half.

By the 27th minute, Percy Tao fell inside the Esperance penalty area and demanded a penalty kick, but the match referee indicated that play would continue.

Esperance was active in the last 10 minutes of the first half, hoping to equalise, but the vigilance of Al-Ahly’s defense prevented it from scoring any goal.

Mohamed Hani, Al-Ahly defender, narrowly removed a cross pass sent by Anis Al-Badri in the 36th minute.

Yassin Meriah, the Esperance defender, hit a free kick in the 37th minute from outside the penalty area, but the ball hit the wall.

Muhammad Ali bin Ramadan sent a cross pass in the 43rd minute into the Al-Ahly penalty area, but the defense successfully dispersed it.

And Al-Ahly continued to control the rhythm of the second half through a large number of elaborate passes, amid a retreat for the Esperance players, so that their goal would not be right with another goal.

Al-Ahly almost scored the second goal with the passage of an hour after the start of the match, after Mohamed Hani launched from the right side and sent a cross pass, which Percy Tau was unable to exploit, as the ball passed to the other side.

The 64th minute witnessed the most dangerous chances for Esperance from a corner kick at the head of Muhammad bin Ramadan, who hit a ball that was steadily saved by Ali Lotfi, Al-Ahly goalkeeper.

Al-Ahly missed a definite opportunity in the 69th minute, completely alone, from Mahmoud Abdel Moneim (Kahraba), who passed the goalkeeper and then fell to the ground, but returned the ball to Hussein Al-Shahat, who shot from inside the penalty area, which was removed from the goal line by Mohamed Tokay, the Esperance defender.

Substitute Ahmed Abdel-Qader missed a dangerous opportunity for Al-Ahly in the 88th minute, after several elaborate passes, so that Abdel-Qader reached the Esperance goal, but he hit the top of the crossbar.

Kahraba missed another opportunity for Al-Ahly in stoppage time for the second half, so that the owners of the land would be satisfied with winning with one goal.