Esperance out of Champions League
But this year’s Final could see a big derby showdown
Zamalek overcame a tumultuous month to reach the semi-finals for the first time in four years, although much of it was self-inflicted
Although there will be no recordsetting third successive title for Tunisia’s Esperance after they were eliminated in the CAF Champions League quarter-finals, there is the mouth-watering prospect of an intense derby in the Final. And that could mean either the fabled Cairo clash between Al Ahly and Zamalek, both long dominant forces in the African game, or the Casablanca showdown between Raja and Wydad, after the two Egyptian clubs and two Moroccan sides meet on the first two weekends of May.
The reason for the delay is the African Nations Championship in Cameroon, the tournament for quasi-national teams made up of locally based players which has been belatedly slotted into the calendar in April.
Zamalek had beaten Esperance 3-1 in the CAF Super Cup a fortnight before the two met again over two legs in the Champions League semi-finals and they repeated the feat with a 3-2 aggregate triumph.
Zamalek overcame a tumultuous month to reach the semi-finals for the first time in four years, although much of it was self-inflicted, led by their bellicose president Mortada Mansour whose emotive decision-making and bizarre pronouncements make him a colourful figure but also a bumbling menace.
Mansour has been through three coaches already this season, keeping up a long sequence of hiring and firing at will, and had clouded the build-up to the CAF Super Cup by threatening to boycott the game in Qatar because of the diplomatic stand-off between Egypt and the Middle East state.
Mansour eventually backed down and Zamalek went to Qatar, after which they travelled to Abu Dhabi for the Egyptian Super Cup, where they beat Al Ahly on penalties in a game that ended in a massive brawl between the two teams.
That led to the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) suspending Zamalek’s Emam Ashour for the rest of the season, while captain Mahmoud Shikabala was banned for eight games and Abdallah Gomaa for three. Mansour was also given a three-match ban and reacted by saying he would not send his side to play in a league game against Ahly in Cairo four days later.
Ahly waited in vain for Zamalek to turn up, and when they did not arrive Mansour claimed they had sent the youth team to play the fixture but their bus got stuck in traffic on the way to the stadium. The EFA said that this was a lie and awarded Ahly the points.
It was against this backdrop that Zamalek then went into their quarter-final first leg against holders Esperance and repeated their Super Cup success with a 3-1 victory in Cairo.
A stoppage-time penalty from Mahmoud Alaa provided a twogoal advantage and provoked an attack on the ref by Esperance, who had midfielder Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane sent off. The Tunisian side’s coach Moine Chaabani and his assistant Mejdi Traoui were banned for four games while skipper Khalil
Chemmam was handed a six-game suspension and Raouf Benguit got four matches.
In the return a week later Esperance could only muster a single goal, a penalty converted by Billel Bensaha, and Zamalek now face a semi-final against Raja, who have won the competition twice before.
Raja overcame TP Mazembe Englebert from the DR Congo in another tie clouded by bad blood.
Having won their home leg 2-0, Raja were forced to change outside the stadium in the return after their changing room was vandalised but they held on despite conceding an early goal to Isaac Tshibangu.
Mazembe’s reaction to the loss was to fire coach Mihayo Kazembe and move technical director Dragan Cvetkovic into the dugout.
Al Ahly will be chasing a record-extending ninth title and feeling rather smug after eliminating Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.
The two clubs also met in last season’s quarter-finals, where Sundowns inflicted a 5-0 first-leg thrashing on the Egyptian giants, which was their heaviest defeat in 77 years. However, this time round Al Ahly won the first leg with two goals from Tunisian international full-back Ali Maaloul. In the return they extended their aggregate lead with an own goal from Sundowns striker Lebohang Maboe and eventually progressed 3-1 on aggregate.
Last season’s runners-up Wydad are through to the semis for a fourth time in the last five editions after eliminating Etoile Sahel with left-back Mohamed Nahiri scoring both goals at home in the first leg before winning 2-1 on aggregate.