Ahli and Ismaili will continue in their respective African club tournaments, which is more than what can be said about Zamalek and Enppi. Abeer Anwar reports Five-time winners Zamalek were knocked out of the African Champions League on Saturday after Sudan's Hilal held the Cairo club to a 2-2 draw in their second round, second leg tie in Egypt to go through 4-2 on aggregate. Ezeh Godwin Ndubuisi and Kelechi Osunwa scored for Hilal although Zamalek opened the scoring through Egyptian international Amr Zaki at the end of the first half. Ndubuisi equalised at 1-1 with 12 minutes left in the game. Zamalek substitute Gamal Hamza added the second before Osunwa levelled in stoppage time. Zamalek rarely threatened the Hilal goal while Hilal lost several breakaway attempts as Zamalek left their defence wide open for a more potent attack in search of overturning the first leg 2-0 loss in Omdurman. More than 70,000 were on hand in Cairo Stadium, a crowd not seen in Zamalek games in years. But the disappointed fans were to later turn on the team, pelting the club's bus with stones. "We lost the match from the first leg when we lost easily 2-0 in Sudan," Zamalek's French coach Henri Michel said. "We now have an overload since we have to win the Arab title to make up for the African loss." Zamalek's unstable situation continued off the field after a court ruled that the club's former president Mortada Mansour be given back his membership in both Zamalek and Ahli clubs. Mansour had lost the memberships, not to mention the presidency of Zamalek, after several controversial incidents which culminated in last year's VIP stadium brawl. Another court ruling is to see whether Mansour should be reinstated as president. Defending champions Ahli advanced safely through to the third round of the Champions League after Sunday's 2-0 win over Highlanders of Zimbabwe in Cairo. The teams had drawn 0-0 in the first leg in Zimbabwe. The five-time winners secured their aggregate victory thanks to goals from defender Shadi Mohamed and Flavio. Ahli opened the scoring through Mohamed's close-range strike in the 13th minute. Angola international Flavio sealed the victory in the last 30 minutes of the game. "The match was a very difficult one as the draw in the first leg put both teams on their guard," Ahli's Portuguese Manuel Jose said. "We wanted to secure a victory as early as possible but the second goal came too late. We were playing in front of an alert team that had hopes until the last minute but we were better." Ahli's next opponent will be Sundowns of South Africa whom Ahli beat in the final of the 2001 edition. In other Champion League results, the Royal Armed Forces of Morocco struck two late goals to record a 2-0 victory over Ashanti Gold of Ghana, drawing 2-2 on aggregate before winning a penalty shoot-out 7-6. South Africa's Sundowns beat Desportivo Maputo of Mozambique 2-0 to clinch a 3-1 aggregate triumph. Former African champions Esperance of Tunisia breezed into the third round by beating Zambia's ZANACO 4-1 in Lusaka. Esperance had taken a 2-0 lead and gave Esperance a 6-1 aggregate win. DR Congo international Tresor Mputu scored a second-half hat- trick to lead TP Mazembe Englebert into the third round with a 4-1 win over AS Adema of Madagascar in Kinshasa. The win gave TP Mazembe a comfortable 6-3 aggregate triumph to set up a third round meeting with Royal Armed Forces next month. Morocco's Wydad Casablanca beat Stade Malien 3-1 in Mohamedia on Sunday. JS Kabylie of Algeria won through on Friday night after beating MangaSport of Gabon 3-0 in Algiers for a 4-3 aggregate score. Nigeria's Nasarawa United also progressed to the third round despite losing 2-1 to Ports Authority of Gambia in Banjul. Nasarawa United qualified 4-2 on aggregate after winning 3-0 in the first leg two weeks ago. Enppi followed in Zamalek footsteps but in the Confederation Cup where they lost to Algeria's ASO Chlef 1-0 in Cairo following a scoreless first-leg draw. "I am very sorry about such a result," Enppi assistant coach Alaa Abdel-Sadek said. "The players were out of form and they deserved the loss." Chlef's manager Abdel-Qader Omrani was joyous. "We did what we wanted. We snatched an early goal and then defended well to come out as winners." Also in the Confederation Cup, Egypt's Ismaili smashed Madagascar's Ajesaia 6-1 to go to round 16. Omar Gamal, Mohamed Mohsen Abu Greisha and Sayed Moawad scored twice each for Ismaili while Ajesaia sole and consolation goal came following a penalty kick by Bowalid. The teams had tied 2-2 in the first leg. In more Confederation Cup results, Tunisia's CS Sfaxien reached the third round after beating Guinean side Satellite 4-0. The Sfax side progress 7-1 on aggregate thanks to their 3-1 in the first leg two weeks ago. Sudanese side Al-Merriekh also qualified for the third round after their 5-0 thrashing of Coton Tchad of Chad. Al-Merriekh advance on a 5-2 aggregate following their 2-0 defeat in the first leg.
