Stunning win for Hilal, El Kaabi bags Wydad hat-trick

JOHANNESBURG: A stunning victory for Al Hilal of Sudan and an Ayoub el Kaabi hattrick for Wydad Casablanca of Morocco were the CAF Champions League matchday three highlights on Saturday.

Hilal won a group game in the elite African club competition for the first time after 22 failed attempts from 2007 by shocking Etoile Sahel of Tunisia 1-0 in Rades. Athar el Tahir scored the match-winner on 59 minutes by rifling a low shot past Achraf Krir and into the corner of the net after a neat three-man build-up.

The triumph lifted Hilal to first place in Group B, ahead of Al Ahly of Egypt and Etoile on head-to-head records as the three contenders have six points each. With home fixtures to come against Etoile and Ahly, a Hilal team coached by Egyptian Hamada Sedki can entertain realistic hopes of a toptwo finish and a quarter-finals place. Based in Omdurman, a city on the western bank of the River Nile opposite the Sudanese capital Khartoum, Hilal are trying for the 33rd time to win the top African club prize. They came closest in 1987 and 1992, losing twoleg finals against Ahly and Wydad respectively 2-0 on aggregate.

Walid Soliman, the 35-year-old Ahly veteran, scored in each half to earn the record eight-time African champions a 20 win over pointless Platinum of Zimbabwe in Cairo.

Meanwhile, China-based Moroccan El Kaabi ended a loan spell at Wydad with a treble as Wydad finished 4-1 winners over Petro Luanda of Angola in an electric Casablanca atmosphere.

Against a backdrop of singing, flag-waving supporters, Wydad were stung midway through the second half when Brazilian Antonio ‘Tony’ Ribeiro equalised. But El Kaabi netted a second time to put Wydad ahead again on 79 minutes and completed the scoring after Wilson Carmo conceded an own-goal.