JOHANNESBURG: Al-Ahly of Egypt stayed on course for a record seventh African Champions League title by forcing a 1-1 draw against Kano Pillars in Nigeria at the weekend.
The Cairo Red Devils achieved the result in Kaduna despite lacking three key players through injury, defender Shady Mohamed and midfielders Mohamed Barakat and Ahmed Hassan.
Although playing in Africa for the first time this year and reaching the third qualifying round with two unimpressive victories, Pillars players and officials boasted that they would defeat the most successful African club.
Kano did take the lead during the first half when striker Victor Namo raced between two defenders to head past Palestine-born goalkeeper Ramzi Saleh, but they failed to build their lead and were caught napping.
Angolan midfielder Felisberto “Gilberto Amaral received a short throw-in and crossed to the near post where substitute striker Hani Al-Egeizi nodded the ball across the goalkeeper and into the net 20 minutes from full-time.
A draw confirmed Pillars as outsiders in the tie despite the late inclusion of Slovenian Iva Sahj into a coaching staff led by Ghana-born coach Malik Jabar.
Ahly assistant coach Hossam Al-Badry criticized the pitch at a venue Kano were forced to use because their stadium is being renovated ahead of the FIFA world junior championship this year.
The playing surface was really bad and affected the performances of both teams. We did not play well during a first half in which we retreated too much and conceded space.
We redeemed ourselves in the second half thanks to substitutions that shored up our midfield and made the frontline more effective. It was a satisfactory result for us, Al-Badry told the Egyptian media.
Etoile Sahel of Tunisia, winners and losers against Ahly in Champions League finals this decade, are also well placed to reach the last-eight mini-league phase after forcing a 0-0 draw in Libya with Al-Ahly Tripoli.
The two other former champions in contention, ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast and Tout Puissant Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo, struggled at home to raw opponents and had to settle for 1-0 victories via penalties.
Kouassi Yao converted his spot kick soon after half-time to give ASEC success over Monomotapa of Zimbabwe in Abidjan and Dioko Kaluyituka converted his 20th-minute penalty to edge Al-Ittihad Khemisset of Morocco in Lubumbashi.
Cotonsport Garoua of Cameroon, runners-up to Ahly last year, lost 2-1 at Heartland of Nigeria, but will fancy their chances of reversing the result when the teams meet again early next month.
Stanley Okoro put the Nigerians ahead midway through the first half in the south-east city of Owerri, Ahmadou Ngoma levelled after half-time and Emeka Nwana snatched the 60th-minute winner.
Sudan had mixed luck with Al-Merreikh winning 1-0 at Kampala City Council of Uganda while Al-Hilal lost 3-1 away to Primerio Agosto of Angola. ZESCO United of Zambia forced a 0-0 draw with Djoliba in Mali.
