Zamalek's African hopes suffered an early demolition after they were held to a 2-2 home draw by Sudan's Hilal in the second-leg of the CAF Champions League round of 32 on Saturday. The five-time African champions were eliminated with a 4-2 aggregate defeat. Amr Zaki opened the score for the hosts late in the first-half before Eke Goodwin almost killed off the whites' hopes in the 78th minute. Substitute Gamal Hamza restored Zamalek's lead three minutes from time to give the Cairo giants a glimmer of hope. However, Kelechi Osunwa secured the draw for Hilal in stoppage time to help the Sudanese side produce the surprise of the Champions League preliminaries. Zamalek, who played with an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation, were annoyed by Hilal's defensive strategy and their ability to hit on the break. The visitors produced an early scare after six minutes when Mutaz Kabeer was released clear on goal but his shot went inches wide of the post. Zamalek then had the upper hand, dominating in terms of possession but threatened on a few occasions.
Abdul-Halim Ali almost grabbed the opener in the 15th minute when he connected with Youssef Hamdi's cross from the right-flank to head the ball just wide. In the 29th minute, midfielder Mohamed Aboul-Ella laid off the ball to the advancing defender Wael Al-Qabani but he fired over the bar. Zaki, who refused to wear the medical face-guard to protect his broken nose, notched the opener six minutes before the interval when he ghosted behind Hilal's defense to receive Aboul-Ella's neat pass and send an ice-cool finish into the back of the net. Tamer Abdul-Hamid could have added the second just before the break after he capitalized on a poor clearance by Hilal's defense to crack a first-timer over the crossbar. In the 50th minute, Muhannad Eltahir took advantage of another flimsy defending by Zamalek to control a through ball in the left hand side of the area before hitting a shot that was blocked by Zamalek keeper Abdul-Wahed Al-Sayed. Aboul-Ella should have leveled the aggregate score seven minutes past the hour mark when he was fed inside the area by Hamza's back pass but his curling left-footed strike missed the target. Zamalek paid the price of their poor defending and incautious attacking approach in the 78th minute when Goodwin latched on to a through pass before curling a right-footed shot that went over the advancing Al-Sayed. Hamza responded with a well-taken free-kick into the bottom corner but it couldn't help as Osunwa notched the equalizer in stoppage time with a header that bounced off the ground and into the net.
