CAIRO - Egypt's Al-Ahly crashed out of the CAF Champions League after being held to a 1-1 draw to Esperance, while Wydad Casablanca surprisingly lost at MC Alger. A controversial first-half goal from Cameroonian defender Yaya Banana for Esperance was cancelled out by Mohamed Abou-Treika, but it was never enough for the wasteful Al-Ahly. Although they were once again punished by a dubious strike against Esperance, the Egyptian champions only had themselves to blame for missing a host of chances after the break. With Wydad losing 3-1 at Alger, Al-Ahly became level on seven points with the Moroccans, who snatched the semi-final ticket with a better head-to-head record. Unbeaten leaders Esperance cruise through for the second season in a row with 10 points. Al-Ahly made one change to the side that held Wydad in Casablanca last week, with Emad Meteb returning to the starting line-up at the expense of Dominique da Silva. On the other hand, Esperance boss Nabil Maaloul surprisingly omitted skipper Oussama Darragi from his starting eleven. The first 15 minutes witnessed no real action at both ends but it was obvious that the visitors had no intention of sitting back for defense. The 50,000 excited spectators at Cairo Stadium were stunned after 17 minutes when Banana beat Mohamed Naguib in the air to head in Khaled Korbi's freekick. Despite the quality of the header, television replays showed that Banana was clearly offside. Al-Ahly were too nervous to reply to the unexpected setback as they seemed struggling to pose any threat on goal against their very organized opponents. Manuel Jose made his first substitution before the half-hour mark when he introduced attacking midfielder Walid Soliman for center-half Naguib, switching formation to 4-4-2. Soliman gradually got into the game with the hosts' first shot on target on the stroke of half time, but Moez Ben Cherifia was there to parry away. The second half started much like the first, but everything changed after the 10th minute when the evergreen Abou-Treika shook the Reds out of their slumbers. The unmarked Treika pounced on the first mistake by the Esperance defense to head home Soliman's corner from close range and send the home fans into raptures, with his first continental goal since 2008. Less than two minutes later, the legendary midfielder almost completed the fightback after latching onto a through pass by the lively Soliman before finishing wide of Ben Cherifia's post. Jose brought on Mohamed Fadl for Geddo and the former had a chance to make a dream introduction but his free header was too easy for the keeper to handle. Meteb and Fadl tested Ben Cherifia with two more attempts on target as the six-time African champions looked closer than ever to score, with Mohamed Shawky missing another easy header from close range. Time was not on Al-Ahly's side though, but they had the chance of grabbing a dramatic equalizer in injury time when Fadl saw a header cleared off the line, before an unmarked Dominique shockingly missed the target from point-blank range on the rebound. Al-Ahly had to pay the price of missing several chances after the break as the continental season was over for the Cairo giants.
