Crown five

Ahli captured the African Champions League for a record-sharing fifth time. Inas Mazhar reports from Tunis

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Ahli coach Manuel Jose hugs mid-fielder Mohamed Shawqi after the match. Faces of happiness and sorrow appeared when Abu Treika, top, scored the game's sole goal

Ahli returned to Cairo victorious after their dramatic 1-0 win over Tunisia's Sfaxien in the final and decisive game of the African Champions League. The score gave Ahli, the defending champions, a 2-1 aggregate win after the first-leg match in Cairo ended 1-1 two weeks earlier.

It was an exciting trip back home. The same Ahli fans who had accompanied the team to Tunisia for the game joined them in their return flight back home. After the team and the fans boarded the plane close to midnight on Sunday, the pilot and his crew presented a cake to the team and celebrated with the fans, media and other passengers.

On the three and a half hour ride, the victory and the upcoming world championship in Japan was the main talk.

When the plane landed and the door swung open, shouts and cries came from those waiting on the tarmac. Team captain Shadi Mohamed and goalkeeper Essam El-Hadari disembarked to stand in the front of the plane carrying the cup

Hundreds of officials and staff at Cairo Airport were waiting. many were screaming happily "Ahli... Ahli... Ahli", shouting the names of the players as they hopped onto a bus which escorted them to the special VIP terminal where they were met by top officials of state.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians beating drums and carrying flags and singing Ahli songs, created a traffic jam at near the airport as they waited for the champions who arrived at 3am local time. Some people could not reach the airport to pick up arriving passengers and had to park their cars outside the airport and walk to the terminals.

In Cairo Airport, Mohamed Abou Treika, who scored the lone goal in extra time, was the most asked player for pictures. Fans stopped him everywhere in order to have their photos taken with him, and he was very obliging.

Police tried to remove those who were parking on the side of the airport road, waiting to accompany the players' bus. That too created a jam as taxis, buses, and cars carried fans, dressed in red, who waited patiently for the champions five hours before their arrival. And though it was getting close to dawn, the whole city was noisy and awake to celebrate, and celebrate it did, finally, as the players' bus made its way to Ahli Club in the downtown area. There, thousands of others waited to continue the celebrations.

Earlier on Saturday, Ahli snatched a fairy tale dream from their Tunisian hosts CS Sfaxien with a last-gasp goal.

It was a most dramatic finish to a tie that seemed to be heading the way of the Tunisian provincial side, literally seconds away from an unlikely first- ever triumph in the continent's biggest club competition.

Having snatched a 1-1 draw away in the first leg in Cairo on 29 October, the Tunisians were sitting on a vital away goal and looked to have the title in their grasp, as the clock ticked away at the 7 November stadium in Rades.

The first half was tight but Ahli quickened the pace in the second in the hopes of scoring. Substitutes Emad Miteb, Islam El-Shater and Wa'el Riad added to their attacking intent.

The Egyptian side's Angola import Flavio crashed a shot against the Sfaxien crossbar in the 79th minute, the noise of which resounded around the stadium and instantly silenced the partisan crowd.

Minutes later Flavio came close again as Sfaxien goalkeeper Ahmed Jaouchi was kept busy.

But the crowd was optimistic and preparing to celebrate. The fourth official showed five minutes of stoppage time. The fans were secure in the belief their team was going to win the game on the away goals rule and bring new-found glory to Tunisian football. Sfaxien had never won the Champions League and before this year had never reached the final.

That was until El-Shater's cross was flicked on by Miteb, then Flavio for Abou Treika to produce a moment of inspiration, in the 92nd minute, which will live on for decades. And if one had dropped a pin on the pitch, it would have been heard as the goal silenced the roaring crowds. Only the cheers of a few hundred Ahli fans in the upper stands could be heard.

In the end, Sfaxien can only blame themselves for letting their grasp on the crown slip. The decision to play out the last 20 minutes in a conservative formation, and with a cynical attempt at time-wasting and gamesmanship, allowed the defending champions to find new momentum.

By the time referee Koffi Cudja blew the final whistle, the stadium, which minutes earlier had 60,000 spectators, became virtually deserted with only Ahli fans and media people left to watch the defending champions receive the trophy and gold medals.

Abou Treika confirmed his status as the best player in the competition, its top scorer with eight goals, and a worthy candidate for African Player of the Year.

It was a great drive back to the hotel as Ahli celebrated during the 100kms trip. On the bus were some fans and Egyptian pop singer Ihab Tawfik who watched the game in the stadium. They sang popular tunes in the bus and in the hotel.

Goalkeeper Nader El-Sayed, who did not play a game in the 14-game tournament, was overjoyed. "Of course I'm glad we won. It was a tough season for us. It doesn't matter for us as players if we equal the record with Zamalek. "It doesn't matter who wins the cup as long as it's an Egyptian club."

Team captain Shadi Mohamed lifted the trophy which was presented by FIFA chief Sepp Blatter on the field. "It was fantastic," Mohamed said. "I couldn't believe it. We were determined to win even before we came here and our plan was a late goal in the second half. Even after regulation time ended we never had doubts that the cup wouldn't be ours.

"The home crowds were celebrating and therefore our opponents lost their concentration on the pitch and while they were calling on the fans to sing to them, that sudden goal came as a killer," Shadi said.

Sfaxien coach Murad Mahjoub left the stadium right after the final whistle and failed to show up at the press conference. His assistant Ghazi said Ahli had confused them with different tactics in the second half. "They (Sfaxien) played their best. We were unlucky," Ghazi said.

Ahli's coach Manuel Jose described the victory as the most important moment in the Egyptian club's history. "I think it's the most important title for me, too. It's very special because it's the 10th title that I've won with the club," Jose told Al-Ahram Weekly.

"This year's final was tougher than last year's because the Sfaxiens are stronger than the other Tunisian side (L'Etoile Sahel)." In last year's final, Ahli tied with L'Etoile 0-0 in Tunisia in the first leg before breezing to an emphatic 3-0 win in Cairo.

Jose added that last year "we were stronger than now. We didn't have all these injuries.

"Being in the final this year was fantastic and we won this game because of the quality of our game in the second half. We were nervous in the first half and during half-time I tried to calm the players down. After the break, both our spirit and good football returned and the fantastic Mohamed Abou Treika scored a fantastic goal for us."

Jose said he was looking forward to the World Clubs Championship in Japan. "This year, we plan to do something, we will try to win the first match against Auckland City. We don't know that team but we will gather information about it. If we win this match, then we will think of the second, but I'm not promising the title and I wish the media doesn't put pressure on the players and put in the minds of the Egyptians that we will bring them the world title as they did last year and we failed to meet their expectations," Jose said.

Ahli underperformed last year, knocked out by Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad in the first game. "This year in Japan we will play to win and enjoy it as well."

Ahli became the sixth and final side at next month's FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. They will join Barcelona, Internacional of Brazil, Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea, Club America of Mexico and New Zealand's Auckland City FC in the global showpiece event, representing respectively Europe, South America, Asia, the Concacaf and Oceania zones. Ahli will kick off their World Club Cup campaign against Auckland City in Tokyo on 10 December. The winner will go straight to the semi- final.

With the victory, Ahli levelled the record with arch-rivals Zamalek winning the African Champions league title five times -- in 1982, 1987, 2001, 2005 and 2006. They become only the third side in history to successfully defend the title, following DR Congo's TP Mazembe (1967 and 1968) and Nigeria's Enyimba (2003 and 2004).