{"id":4059,"date":"2024-05-11T14:40:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T13:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2024-05-11T15:53:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T14:53:49","slug":"al-ahly-frustrate-congolese-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2024\/05\/11\/al-ahly-frustrate-congolese-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Ahly Frustrate Congolese Giants<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 20th<\/sup> 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Master<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zambian great Rainford Kalaba, currently recovering from a car crash that nearly took his life last Saturday \u2013 it claimed the life of the driver, Charlene Mkandawire \u2013 spent 12 years (2011-2023) playing for the Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s most successful team, (Tout Puissant) TP Mazembe adding the CAF Champion\u2019s League, CAF Confederation Cup, CAF Supercup (twice) to five Linafoot (DRC\u2019s top League) titles during a hugely successful spell at the top club in Congolese football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalaba established his reputation with Zesco United, winning the Zambian Cup in 2006 and the Zambian Super League in 2007. Zesco United also won the ZSL in 2008 but Kalaba transferred to Portuguese Primera Liga outfit Sporting Clube de Braga during the Zambian season. He also played a huge role in Zambia\u2019s only success in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2012. Kalaba was the most successful Zambian import to Congolese football, although fellow AFCON winners Nathan Sinkala (2012-2020) and Stopilla Sunzu (2010-2014) also played for TP Mazembe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lubumbashi (formerly \u00c9lisabethville) and its great team rallied to the TP Mazembe legend, but despite the team\u2019s show of support, the first leg of their semi-final \u2013 their best showing for years in Africa\u2019s top club competition \u2013 proved a frustrating match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advantage Ahly?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the tribute to the Master by TP Mazembe, Al-Ahly almost took an early lead, but the most successful side ever in the CAF Champion\u2019s League\u2019s Palestinian striker, Wissen Abu Ali failed to convert a chance he really should have taken. Nevertheless, the Congolese giants had several opportunities, but were thwarted by an impressive performance by Ahly\u2019s goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir, such as his excellent save to deny Malian striker Fily Traor\u00e9\u2019s shot from outside the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their pressure TP Mazembe could not find a way past Shobeir. The match ended scoreless. The second leg will take place in Cairo on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, four times African champions Esp\u00e9rance Sportive de Tunis beat the inaugural champions of the African Football League, Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0 after Sundowns\u2019 keeper Ronwen Williams thwarted the initial effort of Brasilian attacking midfielder, Yan Sasse, but could not prevent Sasse netting the rebound with less than five minutes of the first half remaining. Despite their best efforts, Sundowns could not equalise, meaning Esp\u00e9rance will take a slender lead to the Loftus Versfield Stadium next Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 20th 2024) For the Master Zambian great Rainford Kalaba, currently recovering from a car crash that nearly took his [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[730,732,571,734,718,733,731,715,714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4064,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}