Cairo giants Al Ahly were given a humbling in their African Champions League quarter-final group opener on Saturday, falling to Zambian upstarts Zesco United 3-2.
Zesco have never reached this stage of the tournament, a unique last-eight set-up that CAF divides into two groups from which the semi-finalists will emerge. They have only even played in four previous Champions League editions, going to the last-16 in 2011.
But their introduction to quarter-final play fast proved positive, as John Ching’andu scored the match’s first goal on 27 minutes.
Rising Ghana star John Antwi, a 23-year-old forward who arrived at Ahly before this season from Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab Riyadh, struck back just three minutes later. It was his second goal of the tournament, after his last-32 knockout-round strike in a 2-0 aggregate win over Angola’s Recreativo do Libolo.
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The 2014-15 successive Zambian champions came out hot in the second half, however, with Clatous Chama firing in a double with goals on 48 and 55 minutes.
Antwi brought one back for Ahly on 67 minutes for a double, but Zesco held on for the first three points of the round. The Zambian side will travel to Morocco on June 29 to play Wydad Casablanca in the next of their six contests. Egyptian champions Ahly host Ivory Coast club Asec Mimosas the day before.
Martin Jol-managed Ahly are a record eight-time winners of the African Champions League, their last title coming in 2013. They regained the Egyptian Premier League title last year from Cairo rivals Zamalek, who are in the other last-8 Champions League group, after they lost it the season prior for the first time in a decade. With three matches remaining in the 2015/16 Egyptian season, they own a five-point advantage on Zamalek to retain the title.
In May Ahly played a friendly against AS Roma in Al Ain and defeated the Serie A side 4-3. They got past Tanzania’s Young Africans SC in the knockout last-16 stage. Zesco defeated Mali’s Stade Malien.
Also on Saturday Wydad took a first-half 1-0 lead through Salaheddine Saidi’s goal and held on to defeat Mimosas.
On Sunday the other group will be in action, with Algeria’s ES Setif facing South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and Nigeria’s Enyimba tasked with Zamalek.
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