Must-win match for Ahly as they bid to lift Egyptian gloom
Al Ahly hope to lift some of the gloom hanging over Egyptian football by beating Botswana visitors Township Rollers on Tuesday in a must-win CAF Champions League game for the hosts.
Fans of Egyptian football club Al-Ahly at a match near Alexandria in May 2018, days before annoucing the group’s disbanding. AFP/File/STRINGER
Egypt were booed when they returned from the World Cup, having lost all three group games to Uruguay, hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia in their first appearance since 1990.
Record eight-time African champions Ahly supplied seven of the national squad, including two goalkeepers, Mohamed el Shenawy and Sherif Ekramy.
AFP Sport takes a group-by-group look at what may lie in store during matchday three of the elite African club competition.
Group A
Before a ball was kicked, Ahly and twice champions Esperance of Tunisia were hot favourites to qualify at the expense of Rollers and Kampala Capital City Authority of Uganda.
But the Cairo club, who have won a record 19 CAF titles, find themselves bottom of the table with only one point after two rounds, and they dare not slip up at home to Rollers.
Leaders Esperance will look to Tunisia World Cup striker Anice Badri for goals in a home fixture against KCCA that they should win.
Group B
Five-time champions TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo boast the only 100 percent group record among the 16 hopefuls for a $2.5 million (2.1 mn euros) first prize.
The Ben Malango-inspired outfit began by whipping Entente Setif 4-1 and another Algerian club, Mouloudia Alger, will be in Lubumbashi desperately wanting to avoid a similar fate.
Pointless Setif, who have been African champions twice, host Difaa el Jadida of Morocco in what looks to be their best chance of securing maximum points.
Group C
Arguably the toughest group with the last two champions, Wydad Casablanca of Morocco and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, and Horoya of Guinea fighting for two last-eight places.
Horoya and Wydad have four points each ahead of a top-of-the-table clash in Conakry and a win for the Guineans would give them a real chance of making the quarter-finals.
Sundowns will miss transferred Khama Billiat and probably want-away Percy Tau for a match at bottom club Port of Togo and need a victory after two draws.
Group D
eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) clubs were considered cannon fodder in the CAF circuit until Mbabane Swallows made the second-tier Confederation Cup group phase last year.
Now the club who bank on Felix Badenhorst for goals are doing equally well in the senior club competition, sharing the lead with Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia, who they host.
Zesco United of Zambia and Primeiro Agosto of Angola are three points adrift so both need maximum points in Ndola to ensure they do not fall too far off the pace.
