Ahli and Zamalek booked two early tickets to the semi-final of the African Champions League. Abeer Anwar reports Egypt's Ahli became the first club in the African Champions League to reach the semi-final round after playing to a 1-1 draw away to Raja Casablanca of Morocco in Mohamed V Stadium on Saturday. Ahli had beaten Raja 1-0 in Cairo in June in the first leg. Ahli were in danger of losing their first match in the tournament as the hosts opened the scoring through a goal by Soufiane Alloudi in the 65th minute. Ahli Portuguese coach Manuel Jose introduced Mohamed Abu Treika and Wael Riyad to bolster the offense but he had to wait until the third minute of injury time before Emad Miteab scored the tying goal to place Ahli atop Group A with 11 points from three wins and two draws and automatic qualification to the semi-final. Enyimba of Nigeria are in second place with seven points, Raja Casablanca are in third place with six points and Ajax Cape Town of South Africa in fourth with four points. Each club has one game remaining. Enyimba, the reigning African champions two consecutive seasons, got their second win in the Champions League group stages with a 2-0 win over Ajax Cape Town in Group A. Solomon Agoo scored the opener in the 62nd minute, with David Tyavkase adding the winner in the 85th. In Group B, Zamalek will also advance to the semi-finals after beating Asec Mimosas of the Ivory Coast 2-1 in Cairo. Under their new coach Farouk Gaafar, at the helm for only his first game with Zamalek, the club did not appear to fare much better than with Theo Bucker, the German just sacked. Gamal Hamza got Zamalek off to a flying start in the second minute but Ismail Fofana equalised with a powerful close-range shot for the Ivorians in the 74th. Wa'el El-Qabbani saved Zamalek's blushes with a penalty kick five minutes later after Sameh Youssef was brought down. Gaafar said after the match that the team's performance did not meet his standards but was happy with the victory all the same. "Our aim was to qualify to the semi-finals and that we achieved," Gaafar said. Zamalek now top Group B with nine points followed by Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia with eight. Esperance, also of Tunisia, is in third with five points and Asec are in fourth and last place with four points. Etoile du Sahel increased their hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals with a 1- 1 draw against rivals Esperance. Khaled Meliti scored the opener for Sahel in the sixth minute while Ayman Letifi scored Esperance's equaliser in the 30th. Although Ahli and Zamalek are into the semis whatever the result of their last group game, the two clubs are hoping to finish on top of their respective groups in order to avoid meeting each other. In the Confederation Cup, the second most important African club soccer tournament, Ismaili overpowered the Arab Contractors 3-2 in an all- Egyptian encounter. Mohamed Mohsen Abu Greisha and Mohamed Hommos gave Ismaili a 2-0 cushion at the half. But two goals in the 36th and 44th minutes by Tamer Abdel-Hakim and Ayman Zein allowed the Contractors to claw their way back. In the 73rd minute Amr El-Desouqi scored what would prove to be Ismaili's winning goal. The win put Ismaili in second place with seven points in Group B, tied with Nigeria's Dolphins for seven points. But the Dolphin's 3-0 win over Gabon's FC 105 in Port Harcourt gave them the group lead on better goal average. The Arab Contractors are at the bottom of Group B with three points. King Faisal of Ghana have been knocked off the top of Group A by Morocco's AS Far after suffering a 2-1 home defeat in Kumasi. AS Marsa of Tunisia now lead the standings with seven points, same as Far but the Tunisians have the better goals against average. King Faisal have six points and Fello Stars of Guinea have yet to collect a point. Three matches for every club remain in the Confederation Cup.
