Esperance receives Al-Ahly in the first leg of the African Champions League final
Sudan Events – Agencies
Esperance of Tunisia will host its guest, Al-Ahly of Cairo, on Saturday evening at Rades Stadium, in the first leg of the African Champions League final. Al-Ahly had ousted its Congolese rival, Mazembe, from the semi-finals after drawing 0-0 in the first leg at the latter’s stadium, and winning the return leg in Cairo 3-0 to reach the final match, while Esperance advanced at the expense of South Africa’s Sun Downs, after repeating the back-and-forth victory 1-0.
The final of the 2023-2024 African Champions League will be purely Arab for the eighteenth time in the history of the tournament, and the third in a row after Al-Ahly and Moroccan Wydad advanced to the final of the tournament in the last two editions.
Al-Ahly and Esperance previously met in the final of the Champions League in two previous editions, in 2012 and 2018. The first confrontation was in 2012, and Al-Ahly won the title after a 1-1 draw at Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria and a 2-1 win in Rades. The second confrontation came in the final of the 2018 edition, and Al-Ahly won. At Burj Al Arab Stadium in Alexandria, with a score of 3-1, and lost in Rades, with a score of 0-3, while the return match will be held at eight in the evening, Saturday, May 25, at Cairo International Stadium.