Tau's header not enough as Ahly and Young Africans play thrilling 1-1 draw

Mahmoud Elassal , Saturday 2 Dec 2023

Egypt's Ahly and Tanzania's Young Africans engaged in an exhilarating 1-1 draw in the second round of the CAF Champions League group stage on Saturday.

Al-Ahly s
Al-Ahly s Forward Percy Tau in action the match with Young Africans on Saturday 2 December, 2023. photo courtesy of Al-Ahly.

 

South African forward Percy Tau secured the opening goal for Ahly three minutes before full-time, capitalizing on a mistake from Young Africans' defender Yao Attohoula and headed the ball into the net from inside the area.

In injury time, striker Pacome equalized for Young Africans with a powerful strike from inside the box, catching Ahly's defense off guard.

Despite the draw, Ahly remain at the top of Group D with four points, leading Ghana's Medeama and Algeria's Chabab Belouizdad by one point. Young Africans are at the bottom of the group with only one point.

Young Africans exhibited high motivation from the start, taking advantage of their home turf.

In the tenth minute, they were denied a goal by Ahly's goalkeeper, with striker Clement Mzize coming close to scoring from inside the area.

The Cairo giants began the game without the services of talented defender Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, who suffered an ankle injury during training.

Ahly's Swiss coach, Marcel Koller, made changes to his starting lineup, calling up Yasser Ibrahim to replace the injured Abdel-Moneim and starting forward Percy Tau in the frontline.

The Red Devils missed a clear scoring opportunity in the 18th minute when Hussein El-Shahat received the ball inside the area but sent it over the crossbar.

The Tanzanian side also missed a scoring chance, with Aziz Ki receiving a brilliant assist inside the box but narrowly missing the net with a rare attempt from Ahly's goalkeeper Mohamed El Shennawy.

Throughout the first half, Young Africans maintained pressure and created more scoring opportunities, but the half ended in a goalless draw.

In the second half, Ahly coach Marcel Koller brought on Mohamed 'Afsha' Magdi from the bench to replace Emam Ashour.

Mahmoud 'Kahraba' Abdel Moneim had two chances in the 47th and 52nd minutes, but Young Africans successfully cleared the danger.

Ahly continued to dominate in the second half, and substitute Karim Fouad missed another scoring chance in the 70th minute when his low strike was saved by the Young Africans goalkeeper.

Tau scored the go-ahead goal for the visitors in the 87th minute, but Pacome snatched the equalizer for Young Africans in injury time.

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