Ahly without foreign players in Côte d’Ivoire trip

Ahram Online , Wednesday 8 Jan 2025

Ahly will face Stade d’Abidjan of Côte d’Ivoire in a CAF Champions League group stage game in the Ivorian capital on Saturday, using a locally based squad as their foreign players will miss the game for various reasons.

Percy Tau
File Photo: Ahly Forward Percy Tau prepares to shoot the ball during the match with TP Mazembe. Photo courtesy of Percy Tau Instagram account.

 

The Cairo giants announced their squad on Wednesday, which is set to head to Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday.

The list saw the absence of the Moroccan trio: defender Achraf Dari, fullback Yahya Attiat Allah, and winger Reda Slim.

Dari is suffering from a hamstring injury, while the other two will undergo surgeries on their face and knee, respectively.

South African winger Percy Tau was also excluded from the list, as he is reportedly preparing to complete his move to the Qatari league.

Tunisian fullback Ali Maaloul is also out, as the club has yet to re-register him in the team’s local and continental lists.

Aside from the foreign players, several local players, including wingers Mahmoud ‘Kahraba’ Abdel-Moneam, Taher Mohamed, and fullback Omar Kamal, will also miss the match.

Kahraba is set to leave the club in this winter transfer window, while Taher and Kamal have yet to recover from their injuries.

Coach Marcel Koller will welcome the return of fullback Mohamed Hani, who has been out of action since the CAF Super Cup last September.

The defending champions will seek victory on Saturday to regain their winning rhythm in the continental competition and move closer to securing a spot in the quarter-finals.

Ahly’s impressive 27-match unbeaten run in the Champions League was ended on Friday when they suffered a last-gasp 1-0 defeat to Algerian side CR Belouizdad in Algeria.

They currently lie second in the group with seven points, one point behind group leaders Orlando Pirates of South Africa and one point ahead of the Algerian side, who sit third in the group.

Stade d’Abidjan are at the bottom of the group with a single point from four games.

In their previous encounter, Ahly defeated Stade d’Abidjan 4-2 in Cairo last November.

(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)

 
Short link: