Simba couldn’t complete the sweep that they hoped for in their CAF Champions League Group A finale, falling 1-0 to defending CAFCL champions Al Ahly in Cairo on Friday. Both teams already had qualification and their spots in the table secure but the Egyptian side needed a victory to settle the score following their earlier loss to Simba in Tanzania.
The visitors aimed to prove themselves and show they could go to Cairo and play for three points. The early proceedings showed them to be quite capable in an open match to start. A couple of defensive starters were unavailable for Ahly but the attack was very close to first choice despite the low stakes. Simba found space to run at the hosts’ defense but failed to obtain clear looks at the goal in the first thirty minutes.
Ahly began to wrestle control of the game and found the game’s lone goal through a clever finish from Mohamed Sherif in the 32nd minute. Mohamed Afsha sent in an in-swinging cross from the left flank and Sherif headed a shot into Simba’s onrushing goalkeeper, Aishi Manula. As Sherif’s header bounced off Manula it came back off Sherif and he was able to flick the ball into the open net from his back.
The Egyptian side did well to contain Simba stars Clatous Chama and Luis Miquissone for most of the match. However, in the later stages Simba threatened substantially and were unlucky to not come away with a point. The most dangerous was in the 87th minute when Shomari Kipombe’s speculative early cross caused all sorts of problems for Ahly goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy, but Miquissone missed an open net by putting his effort off the crossbar and out of play.
Check out the highlights below as two of Africa’s best clubs dueled to a close one. Also further below are the highlights from the other match in Group A, where Congolese side AS Vita Club emerged victorious 3-1 over Sudan’s Al-Merrikh with both teams already eliminated from contention from the knockout stage.
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AS Vita Club 3-1 Al-Merrikh
