Al Ahly hold Raja to reach CAF CL semis

by Helder Ribiero

Saturday Apr 29, 2023. 23:21

Raja Casablanca and Al Ahly drew 0-0 in a CAF Champions League quarter-final second-leg match at the Stade Mohamed V in Morocco on Saturday night.

As a result, Morocco’s Raja crashed out of the competition after losing 2-0 on aggregate to Al Ahly who advanced to the semi-finals where the Egyptian football powerhouse will face either Tunisia’s Esperance de Tunis or JS Kabylie of Algeria next month.

The Green Eagles applied pressure on the Red Eagles’ defence from the first minute and they came close to scoring when goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy produced a great save to deny Yousri Bouzok in the 27th minute.

Raja continued to push for the opening goal and they were awarded a penalty just before half-time with Aliou Dieng having committed a foul in the box, but Bouzok hit the woodwork from the spot-kick and the score was level at half-time.

The two teams attacked each other after the restart with Hussein El Shahat failing to hit the target in the 53rd minute and at the other end, Naoufel Zerhouni also failed to keep his attempt on target in the 66th minute.

The momentum was with Raja in the closing stages of the game and Zakaria Habti was denied by El Shenawy in stoppage time as the Al Ahly captain ensured that the North African Derby clash ended in a 0-0 draw.

Raja 0

Al Ahly 0

Raja: Zniti, Madkour (Boulacsout 46′), Mokadem, Hadhoudi, Bentayg, Bouzok, Aholou, Zrida, Al Makahasi (Hafidi 65′), Khabba, Zerhouni (Benjdida 76′).

Al Ahly: El Shenawy, Hany (Abdelfattah 88′), Abdelmonem, El Hanadi, Maaloul, Dieng (Koka 88′), Fathi, Marman, El Shahat, Kahraba (Sherif 58′), Tau (Abdelkader 81′).