Sfaxien to meet Al-Ahly in African Champions League final

16/10/2006

Tunisia's Sfaxien and Egypt's Al-Ahly have qualified for the African Champions League final. Meanwhile, Tunisia's Etoile Sahel has qualified for the African Confederation Cup final, while Moroccan teams FAR Rabat and Olympic Khouribga vie for the other spot.

[File] Al-Ahly won despite a sluggish second half.

Tunisia's Sfaxien beat South Africa's Orlando Pirates 1-0 to make it to the African Champions League (ACL) final. The only goal came in the 40th minute when South African goalie Avril Phadi failed to properly deflect a long-range shot from Joetex Frimpong. Tarek Ziadi scored on the rebound. The first game between the two teams in South Africa ended in a goalless draw.

Al-Ahly of Egypt reached a second consecutive ACL final despite losing 2-1 to ASEC in Cote-d'Ivoire. A header by Angolan striker Flavio Amado put the Egyptian team ahead in the 37th minute, but Dider Ya Konan tied the match in the 58th minute. Amado scored again in the 78th minute.

The Ivorians exerted relentless pressure on their opponents, particularly in the second half, but Al-Ahly's 2-0 victory meant ASEC had to score another two goals to become overall winners.

Al-Ahly's Portuguese coach Jose Manuel was disappointed with his players after the match. "If ASEC had scored a third goal, we would have gone out - I'm sure of that," he said in a BBC interview.

The coach was confident nonetheless that his team would win the ACL. "I consider us favourites because we have a lot of experience in this competition. In the final, we must be the real Ahly and not the cartoon we were in the second half," he said.

Al-Ahly will host the first leg of the final in Cairo on the weekend of October 27th-29th. The return match will take place November 10th-12th.

In Group A of the African Confederation Cup, Olympic Khouribga defeated fellow Moroccan team FAR Rabat 2-0 to keep alive its hopes for a spot in the tournament's final. Saleh Falah and Yusef Ougane scored.

In the last round of matches in the group phase, FAR will play Angola's Petro Atletico at home, while Khourigba will travel to Angola to play InterClube. FAR leads the group with ten points, followed by Khouribga with nine, Petro with eight and InterClube with one.

In Group B, Tunisia's Etoile Sahel defeated fellow Tunisian team Esperance 3-1 to secure a spot in the final. Mohamed Nafkha gave Etoile the lead in the 16th minute, but Seifallah Mahjoubi equalised the game for the hosts just two minutes later. One more goal by Nafkha and another by Yassine Chikhaoui sealed Etoile's victory. Etoile has qualified for a third successive final in a continental tournament, but has lost the previous championship matches.

In other news, Tunisian national midfielder Issam Jemaa will be sidelined for three weeks because of a leg injury. His French team Lens reported the injury was not as serious as originally feared and did not involve any torn ligaments.

Libyan football coach Mohsen Salah was axed following the team's poor start in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers. The former Egyptian player was hired just six months ago. He complained that he had been under too much pressure to attain results quickly. Libya has won just one point in its qualifiers and is trailing in its group behind Ethiopia, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.