A first-half goal from Moroccan marksman Walid Azaro gave Egyptian giants Ahly a precious 1-0 victory over Tunisia’s Esperance in Rades on Friday, lifting them to the African Champions League quarters with one match to spare in Group A.
Azaro, Ahly’s leading scorer last season with 23 goals in all competitions, made the most of a recurring defensive lapse to slot home into an empty net as Ahly’s counter-attacking strategy bore fruit in a classic encounter against their North African rivals.
The record eight-time Champions League winners, who missed out on a ninth triumph after losing to Morocco’s Wydad in last year’s final, are joint leaders with Esperance on 10 points, seven clear of Uganda’s Kampala City and Botswana’s Township Rollers who only have two matches to play.
Ahly need only a win in their last match at home to Kampala to advance as the group winners, given their better superior head-to-head record over Esperance after they played out a 0-0 draw in Alexandria in their opening group-stage clash.
Early injury
Esperance lost forward Bilel Mejri to injury as early as the sixth minute as he looked dizzy after an aerial collision with teammate Franck Kom but they still dominated the early proceedings, thanks to some intricate passing moves in the final third.
They exposed the defensive weakness of Ahly’s Tunisian left-back Ali Maaloul on numerous occasions but their final touches let them down.
Esperance’s best chance came on the quarter-hour mark when a shot by the lively Youcef Belaili deflected off a defender and fell to striker Yassine Khenissi, whose goal-bound header was denied by a goal-line clearance from Azaro.
But Ahly were not to be deterred as they launched deadly counter attacks of their own, unsettling Esperance’s weak central defensive pairing.
They went ahead on 32 minutes to silence the enthusiastic home crowd in Rades. A long ball found Salif Coulibaly on the edge of the area and a flick from the towering Malian defender caught Esperance’s Aymen Ben Mahmoud napping.
Unware that Saad Samir was lurking behind him, Ben Mahmoud allowed Ahly’s central defender to sneak in and touch the ball past the keeper and into the path of Azaro, who rolled the ball into an empty net.
A disjointed Esperance side could have fallen 2-0 down on the stroke of halftime, had it not been for two misses by Ahly in stoppage time.
One of them was glaring, with young playmaker Nasser Maher firing straight the keeper after being put clear by a threaded pass from veteran winger Walid Soliman. Coulibaly also missed a sitter with a powerful header.
Ahly sat back to protect their slender advantage in the second half, allowing Esperance to control possession although the hosts hardly created clear-cut chances.
But Ahly were given a let-off in the 71st minute when Khenissi tumbled to the ground after being caught by a late tackle from Coulibaly but the referee waved away the penalty claim of Esperance.
Esperance pressed hard for an equaliser in the last 10 minutes and squandered their only goal-scoring opportunity seven minutes from time when Sameh Derbali forced his way to the byline after a neat exchange down the right, cutting the ball back to Anice Badri whose mis-hit kick missed the target.
