13 - 19 September 2001
Issue No.551
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 13 - 19 September 2001 Issue No.551 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Perfect no more
Ahli lost for the first time in the African Champions League while Zamalek and Ismaili battled on in the Cup Winners Cup. Abeer Anwar reports on the three-pronged Egyptian effort
Ahli surrendered the last 100 per cent record in the Group B mini-league phase of the African Champions League after losing 1-0 to ASEC in the Ivory Coast on Sunday.
Zamalek struggled to defeat Tunisia's Club Africain photo: Amr Gamal
Defender Amuah Diaky converted a twice-taken penalty in the final minute of regulation time to give the Ivorians a victory warranted by their dominance of possession at a packed Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium.
In spite of the defeat, Ahli remains leader of Group B at the halfway stage of the six-round mini-league competition, level on six points with Petro Atletico of Angola, but ahead on goal difference.
ASEC, winner of the premier Pan-African club competition in 1998, has four points while debutants Chabab Belouizdad of Algeria appears out of the running with one point after a 1-0 home loss to Petro on Friday.
It was one-way traffic in Abidjan with ASEC goalkeeper Losseni Konate not having a shot to save from the Egyptians who failed to recapture the form that brought a 3-1 triumph at Petro four weeks ago.
Goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari kept the Red Devils from Cairo in the match with a series of acrobatic saves as the second-half introduction of Bakari Kone added fire to the ASEC attack.
After the penalty was awarded for handball when an Egyptian tried to block a cross, Diaky saw his first effort rebound off the base of a post only to be given a second chance because the Egyptians entered the penalty area too soon.
In Group A, South African club Sundowns clung to an African Champions League lifeline by forcing a 0-0 draw with TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Although the Pretoria team remain bottom of Group A with no wins, no goals and only two points after three rounds of mini-league action, two of its three remaining fixtures are at home.
Esperance of Tunisia, who drew 1-1 with Julius Berger in Nigeria, top the table with five points and seem certain to fill one of the two semi-finals berths.
Julius Berger and TP Mazembe have four points each but, with only a home game each left, they could be pipped by Sundowns for the other place in the race for the $1 million first prize.
Esperance, champions in 1994 and runners-up in the last two editions of the African club football showcase, hosts Julius Berger and Sundowns entertains Mazembe in the next series of matches over the weekend of 22-23 September.
Surprise packets Petro Atletico from Angola moved closer to the African Champions League semi-finals with a dramatic 1-0 victory over Chabab Belouizdad in Algeria.
The only goal came with 60 seconds of the match left when comatose defending by the home team allowed a corner to slip across to the far post where substitute Joao de Almeida ran in to score unchallenged.
In Cairo, Zamalek's veteran striker Hossam Hassan scored an early goal as the defending Egyptian champions snatched a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Tunisia's Club Africain in a dull African Cup Winners Cup quarter-final match. Zamalek's supporters were hoping for a better result after Hassan's 2nd minute goal but the team failed to impress over the next 88 minutes.
Just two minutes into the kick-off, Hazim Imam waltzed past two Tunisian defenders to find himself all alone against goalkeeper Khaled Azaez who foiled the attempt. The ball was deflected to Hassan who took advantage of the ensuing confusion and slotted the ball home with ease.
The slim margin of victory puts the eventual outcome in the balance when the North African rivals meet in the second-leg match in a fortnight in Tunis.
Another Egyptian outfit, Ismailia, escaped with a 0-0 draw against local side Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa in a tight quarter-final first-leg clash in the same African Cup Winners Cup.
The result means Chiefs goes into the return leg in two weeks as outsiders as it attempts to bring the Nelson Mandela trophy to South Africa for the first time.
But Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral believes the return will be a more open affair despite the failure of his young team to create even one clear-cut chance at a sun-drenched Ellis Park. "It was difficult breaking down the Egyptians as they often had 10 players behind the ball, but they must come at us in the return match which will create opportunities for our skillful players," he explained.
Ismaili coach Mohsen Saleh, who recently lost star striker John Otaka from Nigeria to a Qatari club and also had to do without suspended captain Mohamed Salah Abou Greisha, could not contain his joy. "We played an excellent team that repeatedly changed tactics and I am thrilled with the draw. I studied several videos of the South Africans and planned accordingly," Salah said.
The best chance in a cagey, slow-pace clash came 18 minutes into the second half when Mohamed Barakat played the ball while Chiefs waited for an offside flag, but his timid header was comfortably held by Brian Baloyi.
In the CAF Cup, Mozambique's Ferroviario drew with Cameroon's Contonsport Garoua 2-2 in Beira while in Casablanca, Morocco's Wydad Casablanca lost 0-2 to title holders Algeria's JS Kabylie. At Obuasi, Ghana's Obuasi Goldfields drew 0-0 against the Ivory Coast's Africa Sports.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page