Egypt’s Al Ahly will be targeting a record-extending ninth African Champions League title after setting up a final showdown with Tunisia’s Esperance following a 3-2 aggregate win over Algerian outfit Entente Setif on Tuesday.
Ahly advanced despite being beaten 2-1 by Entente Setif in the second leg of their semi-final in Algeria. Esperance secured a 4-3 aggregate win against Angola’s Primeiro Agosto.
The Cairo giants will host the first leg of the final on Nov. 2 with the return in Tunis seven days later. Ahly had a two-goal advantage from the first leg and went further ahead when Walid Soliman scored first on Tuesday, leaving Setif to score four goals to stand any chance of reaching the final. They managed two in the last 22 minutes through Mohamed Bakir and substitute Houssam Eddine Ghacha but fell short in the end.
In the other semi-final, Geraldo extended Primeiro’s 1-0 first leg lead after just nine minutes of the return in Tunis on Tuesday. But hosts Esperance fought back to take a 2-1 lead into halftime, with a penalty from Youcef Belaili and a header from Mohamed Ali Yacoubi. They went on to win Tuesday’s game 4-2 to reach the final for seventh time. Esperance were winners in 1994 and 2011 and lost 3-2 on aggregate to Ahly in the 2012 final.
