Mahmoud Kahraba scored a hattrick with Percy Tau adding another as record winners Al Ahly kept their hopes of advancing to the quarter finals of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League alive, with a healthy 4-0 victory away to Cameroon’s Cotonsport in Garoua.
The victory took Ahly to seven points, third in Group B and their slim hopes will now be pegged on whether Sudan’s Al Hilal fail to pick victory at home against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
A win for Hilal will kill Ahly’s quarter final hopes while either a draw or defeat will keep them firmly in contention heading into the final round of group stage matches after the international break.
The Cameroonian side’s campaign has been horrid as they lost their fifth consecutive match, conceding their 14th goal in the process an average of at least two per game.
They found themselves trailing after just 23 minutes, when Kahraba scored the first of his three with a simple tap in from a Magdy Afsha low cross from the right.
Six minutes later, the Ahly number seven had his second of the evening, another simple finish from close range from a tau assist. The Egyptians had recycled play quick from a throw on the left with Mohamed Abdelkader sending Tau through with a defense splitting pass, before the latter slapped low for Kahraba to finish.
The visitors went to the break with a deserved two goal cushion.
In the second half, they needed just five minutes to make it three for them and three for Kahraba, the latter finishing off an assist from Tau with a one-time shot from just inside the area.
Tau then added a goal to his brace of assists in the 53rd minute to essentially close out the game with a brilliant goal, cutting to his favorite left foot to shoot home from the right.
The home side struggled to create any chances, and Ahly keeper Mohamed Elshenawy didn’t have much to do on the night.
Source: CAF Online
