Egypt’s Ahly eased to a 4-0 home win over Equatorial Guinea’s Cano Sport to reach the African Champions League group stage with a 6-0 aggregate victory on Saturday.
At Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab Stadium, Malian midfielder Aliou Dieng opened the scoring as early as the eighth minute and produced an impressive display on his debut.
The 21-year-old pounced on a poor defensive clearance to lash home from close range as Ahly ended the match as a contest from the outset.
The Red Devils squandered some easy chances before Nigerian forward Junior Ajayi doubled the lead three minutes into the second home, heading home an inch-perfect cross from left-back Mahmoud Wahid.
In-form winger Hussein El-Sahat added the third in the 55th minute when he cut inside the keeper from the left hand side of the area to fire home into an empty net.
Substitute Salah Mohsen, a pacy forward who is yet to prove his worth despite producing flashes of his talent, put the icing on the cake with an easy tap-in two minutes from time.
Record eight-time winners Ahly are seeking to win Africa’s elite club competition for the first time since 2013.
They came close to lifting the trophy in 2017 and 2018, only to lose to Morocco’s Wydad and Tunisia’s Esperance in the final respectively.
Last season, they suffered a last-eight exit following an embarrassing 5-1 aggregate loss to South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns.
