{"id":4073,"date":"2024-05-13T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4073"},"modified":"2024-05-13T15:11:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:11:08","slug":"al-ahly-reach-fourth-champions-league-final-in-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2024\/05\/13\/al-ahly-reach-fourth-champions-league-final-in-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Ahly Reach Fourth Champions League Final in Five Years<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 26th<\/sup> 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahly Progress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending champions Al-Ahly advanced to their fourth Champions League final in four years after beating TP Mazembe 3-0 at Cairo\u2019s International Stadium tonight. Mohamed Abdelmonem opened the scoring after 68 minutes. Palestinian striker Wessam Abou Ali doubled their lead after 83 minutes and after 12 minutes of added time Akram Tawfik put the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it could have been very different \u2013 at 0-0 Jo\u00ebl Beya headed in a cross from the right of the area, but VAR intervened to disallow the goal for a handball by him in the build-up after 58 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within ten minutes Ahly took the lead through Abdelmonem\u2019s header from the centre of the penalty area into the top left corner of the goal. Ali Ma\u00e2loul\u2019s cross provided the assist. Fifteen minutes later Abou Ali\u2019s right footed shot from Ma\u00e2loul\u2019s cross doubled Ahly\u2019s lead. With Time running out \u2013 12 minutes of added time \u2013 Tawfik\u2019s shot from the right of the area to the opposite corner of the goal made it three. Esam Ashour provided the assist finishing a rapid counterattack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amr El Soleya\u2019 shot after ten minutes was the first serious attempt on goal, but it was easily saved. Almost ten minutes later Ahmed Abdelkader\u2019s header was also saved. Percy Tau (for Ahly) and Ibrahima Keita (for Mazembe) saw shots blocked. Ma\u00e2loul created several opportunities. After 35 minutes his cross resulted in Rami Rabia\u2019s header being well saved by Alioune Faty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before half time Boaz Ngalamulume set up Soz\u00e9 Zemanga but his shot from just outside the area passed just wide of the left post. A couple more attempts were blocked or saved, but half time arrived with no score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the disallowed goal and Ahly taking the lead Tau\u2019s long-range shot was saved. Further blocks and near misses occurred with Mazembe unable to find an equaliser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favoured?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Ahly progressed to the final where they will meet Esp\u00e9rance Sportive de Tunis who beat Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0 at the Loftus Versfield Stadium after a power outage threatened to delay the continuation of the match until the following day. Raed Bouchniba\u2019s goal saw the Tunisians go through 2-0 on aggregate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe match officials officiated this game in the favour of Al Ahly only,\u201d TP Mazembe coach Lamine N\u2019Diaye told journalists. \u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N\u2019Diaye slammed referee, Peter Waweru Kamaku, saying they had three matches without use of VAR and he saw no reason to resort to it in this case. But he went further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must talk about,\u201d he said. \u201cWe lost by three goals, which angers me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am frustrated because we know well that we are in Africa. If we wat to progress, the referees must be serious and better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe game was one-sided regarding refereeing, and I know well that we are human and can make mistakes, but I am frustrated and this affected us and our focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe referee played a negative role in this match, and Al-Ahly does not need that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 26th 2024) Ahly Progress Defending champions Al-Ahly advanced to their fourth Champions League final in four years after beating [\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":[755,713,756,716,734,757,751,753,758,714,85,754],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073"}],"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=4073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4074,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073\/revisions\/4074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}