Al Hilal buffed and puffed but Al Ahly’s house was made of far stronger material, as the hosts could do no better than a 1-1 draw Saturday that sees the Egyptian giants champions move on to the Africa Champions League quarterfinals.
As much as Athar Elkahir and Abu Aagla tried to create a positive atmosphere before the game with their optimistic news conferences, and the Al Hilal supporters also played their part, the naked self-belief that was truly tangible leading up to the Al Ahly game was rarely visible here.
For a moment, three minutes, to be exact, there was hope. Hope that Al Hilal would finally make to the knockout stages of the competition as they dominated the better part of the second half despite having conceded an early second-half goal courtesy of Mohamed Magdi Kafsha.
It was not to be, as the Blue Waves managed to get an equalizer from Abdelrazig Omer’s effort in the 90th minute but failed to utilize an open chance a moment later when Elkahir sent his effort to Al Ahly’s keeper hands.
However, despite bowing out of the African football’s most prestigious competition, the Blue Waves custodian Jamal Salim addressed on his social media pages.
Salim has revealed that together with his teammates they are proud of giving it all, despite the fact that they didn’t get the results they wanted.
“We managed to raise our qualifying expectations high from the groups but we failed ourselves twice at home hopeful we keep our heads up for the local league and come back more prepared and stronger next time Insha’Allah,” Salim posted on his official Facebook page.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “Thanks to our fans and whole Sudan for the support you showed us during the CAF Champions League tournament.” [/perfectpullquote]
Al Hilal had went into the encounter in need of a win but the Red Devils need only a draw to secure progression.
When the teams met earlier in the group stage, at Al Salam Stadium in Cairo in December 2019, Ahly claimed a 2-1 home win thanks to goals from Hussein El Shahat and Ramadan Sobhi.
With the poor start of the group stage fixtures, writings were clear on the wall and it was just a matter of time before Al Hilal bowed out of the continental football.
The group stages exit now leaves Razvan Lucescu’s charges with only domestic tier as their main target, and for this to come true, they must move with speed to sharpen their toothless forward.
