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Al Ahly eye African title after scare

Egyptian giants, Al Ahly, will hope for more goals from Mah­moud Kahraba as they chase a record-extending 11th CAF Champions League title having survived a huge group-stage scare.

Ahly host three-time title winner, Raja Casablanca, this weekend in the most attractive quarterfinal pairing, with the return match in Morocco seven days later.

But in mid-March, it seemed Kahraba and his teammates would be following the knockout stage of the premier African club competition on TV rather than participating.

The Cairo Red Devils were five points adrift of the sec­ond and last qualifying place in Group B, and there were only two rounds remaining.

But four goals from Kahraba helped Ahly to convincing victo­ries over Coton Sport of Cam­eroon and Al Hilal of Sudan and second place behind, Mamelodi Sundowns, of South Africa.

Hussein el Shahat was anoth­er Egyptian to pack a goalmouth punch, scoring twice against Hilal, who missed a penalty in the previous round against Sun­downs that would have eliminat­ed Ahly.

Winners of 23 CAF titles in four competitions, Ahly thrived against Hilal partly due to the backing from 50,000 of the most fanatical football supporters in Africa.

Egyptian authorities, who often restrict crowds to 10,000 or less for security reasons, have agreed to a 52,000 crowd for the visit of Raja, and the tickets were quickly sold out.

While Ahly had an unexpect­edly tough passage to the round of eight, Raja cruised through their mini-league, winning five matches, drawing the other, scoring 17 goals, and conceding three.

Though vastly superior to Simba of Tanzania, Horoya of Guinea and Vipers of Uganda, the Moroccans did not face as strong as a level of opposition as Ahly.

What Raja do possess, under Tunisian coach, Mondher Ke­baier, is many potential scorers with 12, led by five-goal Hamza Khabba, finding the net in the African campaign.

Ahly and Raja also clashed in the quarterfinals last season with the Cairo club winning 2-1 at home and drawing 1-1 away to progress.

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