Cairo - Tunisia: Europe and the Arabs
The qualifying matches for the final of the African Champions Club Championship begin today, and the two first-leg matches will be held today, and next week the return matches, and based on the four matches, the two sides of the final match and the chance to obtain the cup will be determined. The four teams participating in the matches have the same dream, which is a legitimate right, but at the level of wishes, there is a wish among some, especially The Arab fans want the final to be Arab and bring together Al-Ahly and Esperance, but others believe that championships are not won by wishes, but by giving, effort, performance, and achieving victory. Therefore, the confrontation will be difficult for the teams participating in these matches, and it is difficult to predict who will advance to the final and who will lose. These are matches that some see as what is important in them. The gain, not the performance, and the ultimate goal is to achieve victory, regardless of the technical performance
At three o'clock in the afternoon today, Saturday, Al-Ahly team will host Congolese Mazembe at TP Mazembe Stadium, on a quest to win the 12th African star in its history and the second in a row with Swiss coach Marcel Kohler.
The return match between the two teams will be held at Cairo International Stadium at nine o’clock in the evening next Friday, April 26, and the winner of the Al-Ahly matches against Congolese Mazembe will qualify to face the winner of the Tunisian Esperance matches against Mamelodi Sundowns, in the final of the African Champions League. Esperance will meet Sundowns this evening as well. .
Mohamed El-Shenawy, Yasser Ibrahim, Aliou Dieng, Emam Ashour, and Marawan Attia continue to be absent from Al-Ahly in the Congolese Mazembe match tonight due to injury, in addition to the absence of Mahmoud El-Zanfali and Omar Kamal Abdel-Wahed due to lack of African registration.
For his part, Kohler called on Al-Ahly players to come out with a positive result from today’s match to facilitate the task of deciding the promotion ticket to the CAF Champions League final in the return match, by scoring an early goal that kills the morale of the Congolese champion and contributes to resolving the match in favor of the Red Giants.
Al-Ahly, which won the last edition of the African Champions League at the expense of Moroccan Wydad, hopes to achieve the twelfth title in the current edition. Al-Ahly club tops the list of teams that have won the most successful African Champions League titles with 11 titles, while Zamalek comes in second place with 5 titles, equally with... Congolese Mazembe.
On the other hand, Lamine Ndiaye, the coach of the Congolese Mazembe team, believes that the upcoming confrontation between his team and Al-Ahly, in the semi-finals of the African Champions League, will be exciting and very difficult. He continued, “Despite the difficulty of facing Al-Ahly, Mazembe has great chances of qualifying for the final.” The African Champions League, and we have great confidence in the players to achieve victory and continue our journey towards winning the African title.
The Tunisian Esperance team will host its rival, Sun Downs, in a strong confrontation at nine o’clock in the evening today, Saturday, at the Hamadi Al-Aqrabi Olympic Stadium. Tunisian Esperance is looking for a positive result at its home stadium and among its fans, in order to put a foot forward in the African Champions League final, before the return match against Sun Downs. Next April 26.
The “Sons of Bab Souika” team aims to cross Sun Downs and reach the final match, hoping to achieve the fifth title in its history from the African Champions League.
On the other hand, Sun Downs is looking to embarrass Esperance at home and come away with a valuable victory that guarantees them a qualification ticket to the final match before the return match in South Africa. Sun Downs won the African Champions League title once in its history, at the expense of Zamalek Club in 2016.