April 25, 2025, was a special day for every follower of continental club football as the climax to the 2nd leg semifinal fixtures was set for Cairo Egypt with Cairo giants Al Ahly hosting Tshwane colossal Mamelodi Sundowns in what has become a derby of some sort whenever the 2 clash. Another Cairo outfit in Pyramids FC was also hosting the sea robbers of Soweto Orlando Pirates across the city.
With both encounters going into the 2nd leg all square at nil all the talk of having either an all-Egyptian final or al South African Caf champions league was still very much alive, and the protagonist involved had an extra motivation as national pride was also at stake.
At a familiar venue the Cairo international stadium the Brazilians as Mamelodi Sundowns are affectionately called walked into the gigantic stadium with an intimidating crowd that had painted the entire stadium red. However, with Sundowns playing champions league football season in season out this was not anything new and were determined to achieve their goal which was to finally break the semifinal curse and go one better.
Game management is a key when playing these kind of games as Coach Miguel Cardoso has emphasized times without number, that you cannot be naive when playing such games worse with an opponent like Al Ahly who have an illustrious history in the competition than any other team on the continent. From the first whistle one could tell it was a match were both teams would punish each other from mistakes.
Lucas Ribeiro found himself with a bit of space unleashing a good pass to Tashrik Mathews who ought to have at least hit the target but could only unleash his effort wide off the face of goal in the 6th minute. It was until the 24th minute when Sundowns lost the ball in Al Ahly’s half with the red devils bursting towards Sundowns’ goal with Tahir Mohammed unleashing a thunderbolt that beat Ronwen Williams all systems sending the sea of red devils’ supporters into eruption.
The teams would go to the break with the hosts Al Ahly in the lead, and for neutrals you would have to commend the Brazilians for staying in the leg as they never threw in the towel bearing in mind the last 2 seasons, they have been falling at the semi-final hurdle.
Coach Cardoso made some substitutions bringing in Themba Zwane, Devine Lunga, Iqraam Rayners, Peter Shalulile with the later three proving to have had a predate with destiny, as Lunga after receiving the ball on the left side and taking his marker to the cleaners, he unleashed a cross into the box with Themba Zwane lobbing it back into the air falling onto Rayners and with Al Ahly having decided to park the bus the slightest of touches from Rayners as the ball came down led to commotion in the box. As alluded to earlier, it was a game where mistakes would be punished and punished Al Ahly were as in that commotion trying to defend their goal, an own goal resulted in the 90th minute sending the Masandawana Faithfuls into elation.
As time wore on with 7 minutes of added time given stretching into the 10th minute it felt like a lifetime until the ref blew the final whistle, and when he eventually did finally the semifinal hurdle had been eventually dealt with the technical bench embracing with emotion and players racing onto the field in jubilation. Eyes immediately switched to Pyramids and ORLANDO Pirates who in spite of having been in the lead at one point, fell to a relentless Pyramids that was determined to get a result and a positive result they got winning 3-2.
Its Mamelodi Sundowns and Pyramids FC in the Caf champions league final for Sundowns it is the 3rd final the last having been 9 seasons back when they won it beating another Cairo outfit in the White Knights of Zamalek, the first having been in 2001 where they lost to Al Ahly. Pyramids will be first time finalists and as we look forward to final it’s a battle of the African capitals with Tshwane (Pretoria) versus Cairo.
The continent now awaits the final climax to Africa’s elite club football competition.
