Defending African champions Al Ahly confirmed the inevitable on Saturday, drawing 2-2 in the second leg of their CAFCL semifinal against Algeria’s ES Sétif to advance to the final by a 6-2 aggregate score. An early goal from Ahmed Abdelkader put to rest any hopes of Sétif making a miraculous comeback and the teams proceeded to play out a competitive draw, Mohamed Sherif’s late equalizer ending hopes of Sétif supporters leaving with at least a victory. Al Ahly advance to face Wydad AC of Morocco in the final on May 30 in Casablanca.
Ahly showed why they are advancing to the final with an excellent goal in the 2nd minute following a smooth buildup. Hussein El Shahat collected a pass forty yards from goal and passed to Abdelkader at the corner of the Sétif penalty area. The young attacker played a combination with Percy Tau to get behind the Sétif defense and finished low past goalkeeper Sofiane Khedairia to silence a hopeful home crowd.
Sétif pushed but could not find a response as quick as they liked with Ahly staying focused on keeping a solid defensive front. The visitors did slip up just before halftime, however, when Akram Djahnit pounced on a sloppy pass and laid off for Ahmed Kendouci, who cut inside from the right side of the Ahly penalty area and fired in off the crossbar past goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy.
The hosts took the lead just after the hour mark when Sétif’s leading CAFCL scorer, Riad Benayad, drove forward from the midfield and unleashed a beauty of a strike that bounced past El Shenawy from 25 yards out. That was as good as it got for Sétif as Ahly found their focus and killed off the remainder of the match. In second half stoppage time an opportunistic Percy Tau dispossessed a Sétif player and set up Sherif for a shot that just squeezed past Khedairia and made it over the line for Ahly’s second.
Highlights of the second leg are below.
