standings before the match:
| 1 |
Raja Casblanca |
4 |
3-1 |
9 |
| 2 |
Al Ahly |
4 |
6-5 |
6 |
| 3 |
Hearts Of Oak |
4 |
5-4 |
6 |
| 4 |
Shooting Stars |
4 |
3-7 |
3 |
(group winner advances to finals)
From the beginning, wave
after wave of Al Ahly attacks branded towards the Shooting Stars goal.
The Egyptians won the balls easily in midfield, often after uninspired
goal-kicks by the Nigerian keeper. But often the attacks were too hectic
and so it took a big mistake by the Shooting Stars goalkeeper, who missed
a Ibrahim Hassan free kick from the right wing to leave the goal wide open
for a header into the net by Al Ahly player #4 (22nd).
In the following the match
became more balanced before Al Ahly scored again by a fast and effective
triangle attack: a long ball from the midfield line found #8 on the left
wing who centered the ball from the groundline near to the penalty from
where it was headed in by #15 (35th).
The rest of the half was
dominated easily by the Egyptians, whose passing game still produced a
considerable number of unforced errors or mistimed crossings. But it also
has to be said that Al Ahly tried to keep the pace high through out the
match what might have lead to players lacking overview in some situations.
Halftime: 2:0
After some casual Al Ahly
defending had not been punished by the Shooting Stars, the Egyptians were
helped to the third goal by a hand penalty, converted by #10 (53rd).
Then he came (62nd):
Hossam Hassan,
the legendary Egyptian #9, who had missed the first 4 matches, entered
the match as a substitute to captain the team for the final thirty minutes.
Against Nigerians who started
to lose any order, Al Ahly domainated easily and scored a fine fourth goal
by #17 who had just been coming in as a substitute (79th).
Shooting Stars then scored
when a long ball found the very fast player #11 who escaped his defender
to score from 10m (85th).
Final result: 4:1
standings:
| 1 |
Al Ahly |
5 |
10-6 |
9 |
| 2 |
Raja Casblanca |
4 |
3-1 |
9 |
| 3 |
Hearts Of Oak |
4 |
5-4 |
6 |
| 4 |
Shooting Stars |
5 |
4-11 |
3 |
(group winner advances to finals)
back to top |
