Ahli were condemned to a 2-0 defeat in their Club World Cup opener against Guangzhou Evergrande, leaving the African champions only to vie for the competition's fifth place. Two second-half goals from Brazilian striker Elkeson and Argentinian midfielder Dario Conca were enough to down the out-of-sorts Ahli, who did little to overcome their trailing. Ahli now miss out on a much-anticipated clash against European champions Bayern Munich, as the Reds will compete for the fifth place with the loser of the match between Moroccan hosts Raja and Mexico's Monterrey four days later. Treika exit, poor defending After Guangzhou hitman Elkeson saw a header go wide in as early as the first minute, the miss of the match belonged to Mohamed Abou-Treika, who shockingly headed wide with the goal at his mercy five minutes later. Elkeson was once again close to giving his side the lead when he received the ball inside the box, only to see his low shot go narrowly wide. A turning point saw Ahli star Abou-Treika make way for Dominique da Silva at half time, in a change that hardly paid off for the Egyptians. It took the Asian champions just four minutes into the second half to go ahead, with Elkeson this time netting on the rebound Muriqui's initial shot, which was cleared off the goal line by Ahmed Fathi. With Ahli failing to redeem themselves after going one goal down, Argentinian Conca made it two with another followed-in effort after keeper Sherif Ekrami had thwarted a clear-on-goal Muriqui. Ahli, however, had a chance to get back into the game but Abdullah Al-Saied was unlucky to see a tremendous long-range strike bounce off the bar 12 minutes from time.
