By Batsirai Sango.
The Caf champions league is down to one last encounter with this season’s finalists confirmed in the 2nd legs of the semifinals that took place on Friday the 26th of April 2024.
Mamelodi Sundowns played host to Esperance in Tshwane with the Tunis giants carrying a slender 1nil advantage from the first leg the week before, whilst Cairo giants Al Ahly hosted Lubumbashi outfit Tp Mazembe with the match evenly poised at nil all.
It was the Maghreb taking on Sub-Saharan Africa and what a mix to the level of competition the continent’s biggest club football competition had in this season’s champions league, with a lot of intrigue and interest generated from the semifinal matchups that had a regional context to them.
The culmination of the climax of this season’s competition has witnessed the level of competitiveness never been seen before in Caf club football competition with the last 8 having witnessed all regions of the great motherland represented, with Tanzania having 2 representatives in Simba SC and Young Africans.
Back to the semifinal match ups the continent was greatly looking forward to the Mamelodi Sundowns and Esperance encounter as any matchup between Sundowns and their counterparts in the north always ignites enormous interest.
The Tunis giants had their work cut out either to defend their lead and try to frustrate their opponents and with the Tshwane giants finding it hard to score goals with their quarter final encounters with Young Africans having both ended in goalless stalemates, Esperance could bet on that.
And bet on that they did with Sundowns simply failing to find the breakthrough for all that important equalizer with the first half ending with no goals scored, which put Masandawana in desperation mode in the 2nd half.
The search for that all important but somewhat elusive goal to square the tie, have a window of opportunity to Esperance as it left Mamelodi Sundowns open at the back, with Raed Bouchniba scoring the decisive goal for the visitors in the 57th minute to secure the tie.
Efforts to overturn the 2nil aggregate score proved futile as Esperance held on to that lead with Mamelodi Sundowns falling short at the same stage again in as many seasons.
In Cairo Al Ahly were rampant as they welcomed Tp Mazembe to the Cairo international stadium with the match evenly poised at nil all, however at this stage of tournament the red devils of Africa are a different animal.
With their passionate fan base with the entire stadium a sea of red regalia, it was not long before Al Ahly found the opener in the 8th minute through Tawfik, with Abdelmonem adding a 2nd in the 24th minute with Radwan killing off the match as a contest with the 3rd in the 39th minute.
Al Ahly went to the break having all but secured their passage to another final with Mazembe posing little to no threat at all at Ahly’s goal where the latter will face a familiar northern nemesis in Esperance of Tunisia, another showdown made in the Maghreb.
A final that pits Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly will have to wait a few more seasons as it has once again been denied this season, the fixture involving the two has slowly become the biggest encounter on the motherland.
The two-legged final is set for May 20th and 26th with Esperance hosting the first encounter on the 20th with Ahly hosting the return fixture a week later.
