A goal from Peter Shalulile sent South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns into the quarterfinals of the CAF Champions League after beating defending champions Al Ahly 1-0 in a Group A match at the FNB Stadium on Saturday night.
The win put Masandawana in command of their group, having collected 10 points from four matches, with the Red Eagles trailing them by six points in second place.
Al Ahly are next in action in the Champions League on March 18th when they face El Merrikh while Sundowns will travel to Sudan to face Al Hilal the following day.
The game at FNB Stadium saw Sundowns having a quick start by creating the first scoring chance as early as the second minute when a left wing cross from Themba Zwane was met by Haashim Domingo, but his effort was deflected inches wide from eight-yards out.
Al Ahly took control of the game after that and should have opened the scoring in the 16th minute when some beautiful build-up play from the Red Eagles saw Yasser Ibrahim play Magdi Afsha into space just inside the box, but his shot shaved the wrong side of the post.
Two minutes later a sloppy back header from Khuliso Madau saw Percy Tau through on goal, but the Sundowns keeper made himself big to deny the striker from close range.
In the 23th minute sloppy defending by Al Ahly made Sundowns break the deadlock from a from the resultant corner as Peter Shalulile guided Lyle Lakay’s corner with his knee at the back post.
Mohammed El-Shenawy was called into action in the 35th minute, as the Al Ahly number one tipped Lakay’s in-swinging free kick over the bar.
Mohamed Sherif made a promising attempt at goal in the 43rd minute, but the Brazilians goalkeeper, Kennedy Mweene, was up to the task, and deflected the ball away for a corner kick.
The first effort of the second only came in the 62nd minute, as Ayman Ashraf nearly made an immediate impact after coming on, the striker get on the end of Maalaoul’s cross before firing straight at Mweene from the edge of the area.
Pavol Safranko tried his luck from range in the 74th minute but the Sundowns midfielder blasted his effort well over the bar.
Hossam Hassan came close two minutes later but the Red Eagles midfielder fired into the side-netting from six-yards out, after being picked out by Taher Mohamed.
Amr El-Sulaya squandered a great chance for an equalizer in the 82nd minute, as he ballooned his close range effort over the bar.
Maaloul sent a powerful shot straight to the hands of Mweene, but they could not find a late equaliser as Mamelodi Sundowns held on for the win.
This is how they started:
Sundowns: Kennedy Mweene, Khuliso Mudau (Aubrey Modiba 46), Thapelo Morena, Lyle Lakay, Brian Onyango, Mothobi Mvala, Andile Jali (Teboho Mokoena 67), Haashim Domingo (Pavol Safranko 67), Themba Zwane (Grant Kekana 83), Peter Shalulile (Thabiso Kutumela 90)
Ahly: Mohamed El-Shennawi, Karim Fouad (Taher Mohamed Taher 38), Mohamed Abdel-Moneim (Ayman Ashraf 62), Yasser Ibrahim, Ali Maaloul, Hamdi Fathi, Aliou Dieng (Hossam Hassan 75), Amr El-Sulaya, Magdi Afsha, Percy Tau (Ahmed Abdel-Kader 62), Mohamed Sherif
