More than 8 months after the last appearance of Al-Ahly in the African Champions League, the red giant is back to resume its African adventure in the Wydad clash in Morocco.
Al-Ahly played its last continental matches on March 7 of this year with Sundowns, tied (1-1) in the second leg of the quarter-finals in South Africa, to qualify with the aggregate of the two matches (3-1).
Wait is over
The wait for Al-Ahly and its fans ended, and the heavy days before the match passed, for the historic champion of the continent to finally compete in the semi-final challenge against the Wydad team and last year’s summer.
After a few hours, the referee’s whistle will sound at the start of the Al-Ahly and Wydad Challenge, as the first Egyptian and African champion is looking for a positive result that increases his chances of appearing in the Cairo final on November 6.
New coach
Al-Ahly reached the semi-finals thanks to the good technical management of former coach Rene Fyler, whom the Red Administration thanked him days before the Wydad meeting.
Fyler left for family reasons that prevented him from focusing with the team, so the Red Administration decided to sign a contract with Betsu Mosimane, coach of Sundowns, who thought that his career this season ended with a loss to Al-Ahly in the quarter-finals, but returned to lead who beat him in the semi-finals.
Pitso said in the pre-match press conference that he knew Wydad well, and also referred to the Wydad team’s knowledge of Al-Ahly club, epic to the fact that the duo is an open book for each other.
The South African coach may have revealed something of the match plan in statements at the press conference when he confirmed that his team should consider winning in Morocco over Wydad.
Previous evidence
Musimani’s appearance in the quarter-finals with the Sundowns team against Al-Ahly at Cairo Stadium in the first leg of the quarter-final revealed Mosimane’s way of thinking, who tries to attack and put pressure early on the landowner.
In the first minute of confronting Al-Ahly and Sundowns, the visiting team wasted alone and intensified their attacks strongly after that, before yielding to red pressure, retreating and losing with two goals.
Musimani may repeat the matter with Wydad, but with Al-Ahly with regard to the offensive start and an attempt to surprise the owners of the land with early attacks directly from the rear or through the parties.
Absences
Al-Ahly suffers from significant absences in its defenses, after Mahmoud Metwally and Rami Rabia were injured, and the absence of a player in the center of the defense except for Yasser Ibrahim, and Ayman Ashraf, the left back, who participated as a defense center when necessary.
Kahraba is also largely absent from the match, according to Al-Ahly officials, because of the injury, and pushing him for some minutes may be a risk that prevents him from playing the return leg.
On the other hand, Wydad lost a player who was infected with the Coronavirus, but the name of the player has not been revealed yet, according to statements by Ashraf Ibrahim, Egypt’s ambassador to Morocco.
Video technology
The semi-finals in the Champions League will be held for the first time in the presence of VAR video technology, which greatly relieves pressure on the team, which fears arbitration bias in the match for one party at the expense of the other.
Wydad and Al-Ahly had previously been subjected to arbitration injustice in recent years, and Wydad was the last victim in the final of Rades last season when he scored a goal that the referee canceled before it was discovered that the video technology was disrupted, so the team withdrew and the crowning of Esperance was announced.
But fears moved to Al-Ahly after the statements of Said Naciri, President of Wydad, that he had received an offer at Rades Stadium to spend what happened in the stadium in order to crown his team in the following year (the current season), and despite this, the video technology in the Mohammed V stadium publishes reassurances for the two teams that the arbitration justice Will attend.
Match card
Event: The first leg of the CAF Champions League semi-final
Date: October 17, 2020
Timing: 9 pm Cairo local time
Conveyor channel: Bein sports HD7
Place: Morocco – Casablanca
The stadium: Mohammed V stadium
These were the details of the news The wait is over .. Al-Ahly and Wydad face to face... for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at eg24.news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
