CAF Champ Lge Down to the last eight
Last-eight showdown
“I believe Al Ahly did not know us and did not respect us last year” Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane
Last year’s Champions League quarter-final clash between aristocrats Al Ahly and the “new money” of South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns was one of few classics the competition can boast in its 23-year history.
Sundowns, owned by billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe and boasting resources few other African sides have access to, put together a quality performance rarely seen before on the continent as they clinically dismantled African football’s most successful club and won the first leg 5-0 in Pretoria.
Al Ahly, record eight-time competition winners, had never been treated as such before and it was their biggest defeat in 77 years. The Cairo giants were befuddled by the outcome, finding it hard to accept despite the obvious gulf in quality.
Usually such a reversal leads to the realisation that the tie is lost, leaving the vanquished side to seek some redemption in the second leg and then bow out with a little dignity restored. But it was an almost
fever-pitched thirst for revenge that characterised the return game and it turned into a nasty affair with a rabid crowd baying for blood.
Frenzied waves of attack ensued from kick-off, making for a bizarre spectacle at times, but in the end Al Ahly managed just one goal and went out with their tails between their legs.
Sundowns then lost in the semi-finals to Wydad, who in turn forfeited the Final to Esperance of Tunisia.
This year those four are all back for the last eight of the 24th edition of the competition, with Al Ahly and Sundowns drawn against each other again.
This time, the first leg is in Egypt with Sundowns’ coach Pitso Mosimane quick to suggest the chances of another runaway win are highly unlikely.
“I believe Al Ahly did not know us and did not respect us last year,” says Mosimane. “But after we knocked them out, the motivation will be different and they will be more prepared.
“They now know us, but they will also be under pressure because they are always favourites and there will be pressure to beat us.”
He might be overstating the expectation on the latest generation at a club – now coached by ex-Anderlecht boss Rene Weiller – with a doubledigital lead in the domestic championship but they also had a stuttering group campaign in the Champions League, where they finished second and were not sure of qualification until their last game.
The draw has seen the quest for an unprecedented third successive title for Esperance overshadowed, even if they proved efficient in advancing through the group phase.
They are drawn against Zamalek, which means they take on the Egyptians three weeks in a row: first in the African Super Cup (being played for a second successive year in Qatar) and then in the Champions League, with Zamalek at home in the first leg.
Esperance will be fancied to advance and meet either Raja or TP Mazembe Englebert of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mazembe and Sundowns are the only two clubs from countries south of the Sahara in the last eight, emphasising the long-standing dominance of the competition by clubs from the Arabic speaking north. Mazembe and Sundowns, however, were the only
unbeaten sides in the six-match group phase.
In the other half of the draw, the winner of the Al Ahly-Sundowns tie meets either Wydad or Etoile Sahel.
Wydad were the side who walked off in last year’s Final and were initially given the right to replay before sanity prevailed. Yet they escaped a regulatory ban from the competition for a two-year period and have now made it to the last eight for a fifth successive year.
But this season has seen some turmoil at the club, with two coaching changes already and Frenchman Sebastien Desabre the latest incumbent. Etoile Sahel fired their coach, Juan Carlos Garrido, despite winning their group, thereby keeping up a long-standing habit of overheated reaction to negative results as they struggle in domestic competition.
There will be a new winner in the Confederation Cup as none of the quarter-finalists have ever taken the trophy before, although RS Berkane lost to Zamalek in the Final last year on penalties.
Pyramids FC, with the backing of Saudi money, are a new phenomenon in Egyptian football and favourites to replace compatriots Zamalek as title holders.