Ahli made it to the group stage of the African Champions League, Inas Mazhar reports Veteran midfielder Mohamed Barakat saved Ahli the embarrassment of the day as he scored his team's only goal in the 66th minute for a 1-0 win against Zesco of Zambia and a berth in the last eight of the mini-league stage of the CAF Champions League. When the 35-year-old Barakat netted the winner, Ahli fans and head coach Manuel Jose finally exhaled with joy in a modest game which provided a lacklustre performance. Normally the Portuguese coach would have punished his team for such a poor performance by imposing an early morning training the following day. But the win and the qualification to the group stage was enough to let the team off the hook. The training was held in the evening instead. Jose has asked his players to forget about the African competition for the time being and focus on the domestic league, in which the team is in second place, four points behind Zamalek with 11 games left. It wasn't a full house at Cairo International Stadium, but the Ahli Ultras filled the left side of third class as usual, causing a security headache for the police and army by launching fire crackers. In the game against Zesco, play was stopped for almost five minutes while a Zesco fell to the ground suffering from smoke inhalation. While the defending champions TP Mazembe of Congo and Ahli confirmed their status as amongst the elites of continental club football, the quartet of former winners, Enyimba of Nigeria, Raja Athletic Club of Morocco, Tunisia's Esperance and MC Algers of Algeria also joined them in the group stage. Enyimba and Raja marched on with victories over Libya's Al Ittihad and ASEC Mimosas of Cote d'Ivoire respectively in the one-leg affair due to the current political situation in Cote d'Ivoire. The last two-time winners Mazembe are going for a third title after a 2-0 victory over Morocco's Wydad Athletic Club to advance 2-1 on aggregate. Second half strikes from Kabangu Mulota and Bedi Mbenza sealed victory. Runner ups from last year's edition, Esperance of Tunisia completed a double over ASC Jaraaf of Senegal with a lone goal victory in Dakar and progress 6-0 on aggregate. Raja beat ASEC 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 stalemate whilst Enyimba posited a lone goal victory over Ittihad. Former Algerian champions MC Algers beat Angolan champions Interclube 3-2 in Algiers to advance 4-3 on aggregate. In Garoua, Coton Sport dismantled ES Setif of Algeria 4-1 in their rescheduled first leg meeting. The second leg will be played in Setif next week, with the winners completing the octet for the $1,500,000 prize money and the ticket to represent the continent at the FIFA Club World Cup. Elsewhere, in Tunis, the Club Africain-Al Hilal game was abandoned with few minutes remaining following a pitch invasion in Radas Stadium in Tunis. Interestingly, the Tunisian club were involved in a similar incident here in Egypt two months ago when the Zamalek fans invaded the pitch. Al-Hilal of Sudan suffered the same from the Club Africain fans. The Tunisian club will most likely be penalised by CAF. Ahli now await the draw of the Inter-clubs competitions which is scheduled to be held at CAF headquarters on Sunday in Cairo. Ahli are the only Egyptian team left in African competitions after three other Egyptian teams said an early goodbye -- Zamalek in the Champions League and Ismaili and Haras Al-Hedoud in the Confederations Cup. Earlier in the week, Haras of Alexandria lost to DCMP 2-1 and then 4-3 by penalty kicks. The first match ended 2-1 in favour of DCMP. The Inter-Clubs competitions are the Orange CAF Champions League and the Orange CAF Confederation Cup. The eight clubs which qualified in the ongoing eliminations which began on 28 January will be divided into two groups of four teams for each competition. And for five months, the teams will compete for the title which will see the winner representing Africa in the FIFA World Cup in the UAE in 2011. The top two from each group of the mini league will qualify for the semi finals. The final of the Orange CAF Champions League will be played between 4 and 6 November for the first leg, and between 11 and 13 November for the second leg. TP Mazembe is the current champions of the Orange CAF Champions League and FUS of Morocco won the 2010 edition of the Orange CAF Confederation Cup. Prior to the draw, the CAF Organising Committee for the Inter-Clubs Competitions, the Executive Committee and Referees' Committee will hold their respective meetings to examine reports on matches being played since the beginning of the year. The Executive Committee will meet on Monday.
