Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca compensated for its early delay with a goal, to achieve an important 3-1 victory over Egypt’s Zamalek at Mohamed V Stadium in Casablanca, in the third round of Group D of the African Champions League today, Saturday, while Al-Ahly of Egypt, the title holder, received a surprise defeat 1 0 once morest the South African Sundowns.
Wydad was alone in second place in the group with 6 points, one point behind Petro Atletico of Angola, who led following a 1-0 victory over its host and local rival Sagrada earlier today.
Zamalek’s balance froze at two points from two draws in third place, while Sagrada is at the bottom of the standings with one point.
Captain Yahya Gibran made a passing error that Zamalek exploited, to open the scoring following 3 minutes from the start, following a through pass from Moroccan Ashraf Bencharki to Ahmed Sayed (Zizou), who shot from outside the penalty area in the far corner of the goal.
Wydad – who was supported by more than 40,000 spectators in the stands – looked for a tie, and Ayman Al-Hassouni was close to hitting the net in the 18th minute, but his shot from inside the penalty area was blocked by Mohamed Abu Jabal, the goalkeeper of Zamalek.
Wydad’s pressure resulted in the equalizing goal in the 27th minute, following a poor removal from Tunisia’s Hamza Mathlouthi was exploited by Zuhair Matarji, to hit the net with a perfect shot.
The pressure of Wydad continued, as Mbenza Ji, who came from Congo, fired a shot from close range in the 35th minute, which was removed by Abu Jabal, who made a mistake in the removal two minutes later. Defender Amin Farhan took advantage of it to score the second goal for the hosts following a cross pass from a corner kick.
Amin Farhan marks a very impressive goal and gives Wydad progress with a striking artistic shot#Wydad_Zamalek #African Champions League pic.twitter.com/JkQRLV9R6E
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) February 26, 2022
Zamalek pressured to equalize, and the French Patrice Carteron pushed several offensive changes.
After the nerves of the two teams became tense following a member of the technical staff of Zamalek pushed one of the ball bearers, Wydad succeeded in adding the third goal two minutes before the end, following a counterattack and a through pass from the Libyan alternative, Moayyed Al-Lafi, to Gibran, who settled the ball in the far corner of the goal.
In Luanda, Petro Atlético’s only goal was scored by Thiago Azulao in the 33rd minute from a penalty kick, to raise his team’s tally to 7 points in the lead, one point ahead of Wydad.
???? Match summary:
Petro Atletico adds three more points to its tally following beating Sagrada Esperanca with a goal to none. ✅#TotalEnergiesCAFCL | #GDSEAPL | @petro_de_luanda | @Football2Gether pic.twitter.com/w5IgHGYsg4
— African Champions League and Confederation Cup ???? (@CAFCLCC_ar) February 26, 2022
Sun Downs stuns Al-Ahly
And in another shock to the Egyptian fans, substitute Thabello Morena scored a goal 4 minutes before the end, to lead Sun Downs to a surprising 1-0 victory over Al-Ahly, the defending champion, at home in the first group of the African Champions League on Saturday.
At the Cairo International Stadium, Sun Downs maintained their lead in the group with seven points from 3 matches, three points ahead of Sudan’s second-placed Al-Merreikh.
Al-Ahly remained in third place with one point from two matches, equal with Al-Hilal of Sudan, who played 3 matches.
