Egypt's Al Ahly made it seven CAF Champions League titles on Saturday after beating Tunisian club Esperance 2-1 in Rades, Tunisia that handed them a 3-2 victory on aggregate.
Given the tough year Egyptian football has faced, with no domestic competitions due to security reasons, this was probably the most unlikely of their seven wins. However, few would deny them credit for the way they achieved it.
Al Ahly had been forced to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the final in Alexandria two weeks ago and last year's champions Esperance obviously started the return tie on home ground the favourites to complete the job in front of their own supporters and eventually also secure a back-to-back triumph.
Before the start of the game, Esperance were given a great boost as their star striker Youssef Msakni passed a late fitness test after an appendicitis operation and he was in the starting line-up.
The game was tense and the level of football in the first half did not rise to the occasion, with very little goal-mouth action to report. But Ahly still had more of the play and on 43 minutes they took a deserved lead through Mohamed ?Geddo? Nagui who finished off a good run down on the right to slot the ball past Esperance goalie Moez Ben Charifia.
Esperance tried to get back into the game in the second half, but on it was Al Ahly who dealt them a second blo on the hour mark when they scored a second goal through Walid Soliman who scooped the ball off Ben Mansour's head before firing past Charifia.
That left Esperance essentially needing to score three times to win and it looked to be well nigh impossible taking the run of play and victory for them seemed an unlikely scenario, even if they managed a goal back on 84 minutes after Yannick Ndjeng tapped home after a low cross from the right.
The Egyptians had the chance to make the score even more emphatic when Esperance goalkeeper Ben Charifia was penalised for a double-foot tackle against Dominique Da Silva, but the he then saved Mohamed Aboutreika?s shot from the penalty spot.
However, the miss did not unduly worry Al Ahly and they held out to the end to celebrate their continental triumph that also secures their place in next month's FIFA Club World Club as Africa's representatives.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTripoliPost/~3/7buuP5KqKTI/articledetail.asp
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