African Football League: Ahly and Sundowns held at home, but reach semifinals
Al Ahly of Egypt and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa both failed to win at home on Tuesday, but still qualified for an African Football League (AFL) semi-finals showdown.
Mahmoud Kahraba scored in Cairo as Ahly came from behind to draw 1-1 with Simba of Tanzania in a quarterfinal second leg, and squeezed through on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate deadlock.
Sundowns had Mothobi Mvala sent off after only four minutes of a dour 0-0 draw with Petro Luanda of Angola in Pretoria and advanced 2-0 on aggregate.
Ahly will host Sundowns on Sunday with the return match next Wednesday.
They met in the CAF Champions League group stage last season with Sundowns winning 5-2 at home and drawing 2-2 away.
Having drawn 2-2 in Dar es Salaam last Friday, record 11-time African champions Ahly were expected to beat Simba in Egypt, but could not translate first-half dominance into goals.
After South African Percy Tau wasted a great early second-half chance for Ahly, Simba stunned the home team by taking a 68th-minute lead through Malian Sadio Kanoute.
When a teammate headed a cross toward the Ahly goal it struck Kanoute, and the ball changed direction to enter the net with Ahly goalkeeper Mohamed el Shenawy out of position.
Simba held the lead on the night and on aggregate for eight minutes before Kahraba, who scored the second Ahly goal in Tanzania, struck again.
Veteran Ahly and Tunisia fullback Ali Maaloul was a constant threat with his runs down the left flank and his cut back enabled Kahraba to beat Ally Salim with a low shot into the corner.
Ahly coach Marcel Koller must be concerned that his team had 20 goal attempts, but only two on target.
In Pretoria, centre-back Mvala was shown a straight red card for fouling Petro captain Tiago Azulao as he dashed toward goal.
But the Luanda outfit failed to take advantage of facing 10 men and 71 minutes elapsed before they had a goal attempt on target.
The other second legs will be staged on Wednesday with TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo defending a 1-0 lead away to Esperance of Tunisia.
Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, beaten by Ahly in the last Champions League final, host Enyimba of Nigeria and hold a 1-0 aggregate advantage.
The AFL is a new competition that bears little resemblance to the original concept with changes to the name, number of competitors and prize money.
Originally called the CAF Africa Super League, the name was altered amid concerns that the competition might be linked with the failed 2021 attempt to form a super league in Europe.
An inability to secure many sponsors meant the number of entrants was cut from 24 to eight and first prize reduced from $11.5 million to four million.
The main financial backer — the Saudi Arabian tourism authority — was announced just eight days before the AFL kicked off.
