For the first time since the Port Said Stadium massacre more than a year ago, Ahli's fans, numbering around 3000, were allowed to attend their team's 2013 Orange CAF Champions League first round second leg. Ahli, the title holders, easily beat Kenya's Tusker 2-0 in Alexandria's Borg El Arab Stadium to proceed to round 16 with a 4-1 on aggregate. Ahli fans celebrated their team's victory with fireworks while the police were present in huge numbers on and off the pitch. Seventy-four spectators, mainly Ahli supporters, were killed last year in a soccer riot in the Port Said tragedy. Games since have been played without fans as a security measure. Ahli won the first leg 2-1 at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi a fortnight ago. Strikers Ahmed Abdel-Zaher and Emad Meteb scored Sunday for Ahli. Tusker could have scored near the end but goalkeeper Sherif Ikrami was there to foil the attempt. Ahli missed the efforts of both Walid Suleiman who is still working on his fitness after injury and Hossam Ghali who is still suffering from a long term knee injury. “Ahli is a team that plays to win every game, regardless of who is our opponent,” Meteb said. “Winning the first leg away didn't mean we qualified for the next round. That's why we did our best to end the second leg in our favour. We did our best to win. Our ambition is to retain our title as the champions, but we'll take it one game at a time. This is our strategy in Ahli.” Metebalso told cafonline that he was thrilled to get back on the score sheets after a long absence. “I'm a striker; my job is to score goals. Definitely I felt a bit worried when I didn't score for a number of matches, but this happens everywhere. I never lost confidence and kept trying. Ironically I returned with a brace in Nairobi against Tusker when in 2006, I scored a brace there against Tusker too. We won 2-0 and we eventually won the title that year. I hope this could be a good omen and we finish as eventual winners this year.” “We respect Tusker, team and players, as it is a strong team with some well known stars but we played to win. We play every game with only victory as our goal. We wanted to make our loyal fans happy by qualifying for the next round,” declared Hossam Al-Badri, Ahli's head coach. Meteb said Ahli faced a tight schedule, playing two games in less than four days in the national league tournament before heading to Alexandria for the Tusker match. “We play a game every 72 hours; my players are exhausted. We have a very packed schedule and we train daily without any rest. We finished the first round of the domestic league on top of our group and that was good motivation before the Tusker game.” In the same championship, Egyptian club Zamalek followed in Ahli's footsteps by drawing 0-0 against AS Vita Club in their return match in DR Congo. Zamalek, winners of the title on five previous occasions, won the last 32 tie 1-0 on aggregate thanks to their slight lead from the first leg in Cairo. Zamalek's Brazilian head coach Vierra burst into tears after the team was able to qualify for the 16th round. The narrow 1-0 win in Alexandria in the first leg did not leave much room for error for Zamalek. In the second leg Vita had the upper hand all through the match and only the experience of Zamalek's goalkeeper Abdel-Wahed Al-Sayed prevented a sure loss. Zamalek is currently passing through a golden period in its history. It had never played four matches in a row in the African Champions League without a loss. And its 8-0 start in the league season is its best ever. Al-Sayed, who joined the team in 1998, said, “This team is one of Zamalek's dream teams, comparable to that of 2004 which comprised a number of stars (and which took the league) I am very happy to be part of such a team whose players are helpful, loving, talented and considerate.” In the CAF Confederation Cup, Enppi drew goalless with Kenyan club Gor Mahia in a closely fought match played at Nyayo Stadium. The Kenyan side were in need of four goals to overcome Enppi but the Egyptians were on guard and worked well on defence to qualify to round 16 of the competition on 3-0 aggregate. Ismaili also proceeded to the 16th round after drawing goalless against Madagascar's Triple to advance 3-0 on aggregate. Ismaili were missing a number of their players due to injury in addition to one more problem: the accommodation they had in Madagascar. All this was reflected in the players' performance during the match. They were trying hard to score but lacked cohesion. They were also a bit down in the dumps after losing in the Arab Confederation Cup in Cairo a couple of days earlier. Ismaili were supposed to at least qualify for the final but surprisingly lost in the semi-final round to Algeria's Capital to say farewell to the event. The match saw a small riot break out by Ismaili fans which forced upon the club LE375,000 in fines to fix the mess that was made in the stadium after the match. “It was a great chance for us to advance to the 16th round as it gave us a great push and helped the players overcome their sadness after the Arab loss,” Sabri Al-Menyawi, Ismaili's head coach, said of the match against Triple. “We trained well for the match but we had a very tight schedule full of matches either in the Arab Confederation Cup or the league competition so the players were tired. I hope the victory will wipe away past miseries and give enthusiasm for Ismaili players to move forward.”
