Al Ahly booked their place in the 2021/2022 CAF Champions League final following their 2-2 draw against ES Setif at the Stade 5 Juillet on Saturday evening.
The defending champions progressed with a 6-2 aggregate score, having won the first leg 4-0 in Cairo last weekend.
The hero of the day away in Algiers was South Africa striker Percy Tau who provided assists to Ahmed Abdel-Kader and another to Mohamed Sherif.
Setif found the back of the net courtesy of midfielder Ahmed Kendouci and striker Riad Benayad, but the goals were not enough to bundle out a strong Al Ahly.
Pitso Mosimane’s charges were taking the game to Setif in the opening exchanges and went ahead on the second minute when Tau played a quick interchange of passes with Ahmed Abdelkader before the latter finished off superbly inside the box.
Setif tried to play a high line and were fortunate not to be 2-0 down just four minutes later after Mohamed Taher beat the offside trap to go clear on goal but his left-footed strike came off the bottom post.
The Black and White were playing on counter-attacks and Ahmed Kendouci found the equalizer at the interval when he fired home a left-footed shot from outside the penalty area to the underside of the crossbar to make it
The Red Devils struggled to settle after the restart, under pressure from Setif and Riyad Benayad eventually found the back of the net on the hour mark with a powerful strike from distance that beat Mohamed El-Shenawy to set up a nervy end to the game.
The game opened up as Al Ahly were spirited to get back into the game and in the last 14 minutes Mosimane made a tactical changes, as he introduced Mohamed Sherif, Ayman Ashraf and Ahmed Koka for Mohamed Taher, Abder-Kader and Yasser Ibrahim.
The Red Devils eventually found the equalizer just after that when Tau played another brilliant through pass to Sheriff, who did the simple task of sliding it beyond the keeper.
How they lined up:
ES Setif: Sofiane Khedairia; Hocine Laribi, Abdelkrim Nemdil, Mohamed Khoutir-Ziti, Houari Ferhani, Abdelkader Boutiche, Ahmed Kendouci, Akram Djahnit, Abdelmoumene Djabou, Abderrahim Deghmoum (Zobeir Matrani 62), Riad Benayad (Mounsef Bakrar 72)
Ahly: Mohamed El-Shennawi; Mohamed Hani, Yasser Ibrahim (Ayman Ashraf 89), Mohamed Abdel Monem, Ali Maaloul, Hamdi Fathi, Aliou Dieng (Ahmed Koka 85), Ahmed Abdel-Kader (Rami Rabia 67), Hussein El-Shahat (Mohamed “Afsha” Magdi 67), Taher Mohamed Taher (Mohamed Sherif 85), Percy Tau
