CAF Champions League quarter-finals: 5 facts

Forward Mamelodi Sundowns’ Peter Shalulile is in fantastic form ahead of Saturday’s CAF Champions League quarter-final first leg against Petro Luanda in Angola.

A hat-trick in each of his last two South African Premiership games gave him 27 goals for the season.

Sundowns, Egypt’s Al Ahly, Morocco’s Raja and Wydad Casablanca, Algeria’s Entente Setif, and Tunisia’s Esperance have won the prestigious African club championship.

AFP Sport highlights five things to know before Setif’s clash with Esperance on Friday.

Sharpshooter Shalulile

Shalulile has scored 21 Premiership goals, three domestic cup goals and three Champions League goals since 2005.

With five goals in Sundowns’ remaining five Premiership games, Shalulile will break Collins Mbesuma’s record of 25 goals for Kaizer Chiefs (17 years ago).
His league trebles against Swallows and Golden Arrows bring Sundowns within seven points of a seventh consecutive Premiership championship.

Ramadan concessions

On Fridays and Saturdays at 1300, 1600, and 1900 GMT, Champions League games are rescheduled due to Ramadan.

The six north African clubs’ quarter-final matches will start between 2000 and 2200 GMT, with several finishing nearly an hour beyond midnight local time.
During Ramadan, Muslim players are allowed to eat and drink from dawn to dusk, although few do so, preferring to eat and drink the night before games.

Mosimane vs Jose

Former Ahly coaches Pitso Mosimane (born in South Africa) and Manuel Jose (born in Portugal) disagree on who is the finest Ahly coach.

In his opinion, Jose is the best, while Ahmed ‘Mido’ Hossam prefers Mosimane, who has won six African crowns.

In addition to goalkeeper Essam el Hadary, Gomaa and midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika, Jose had probably the finest club team in African history.

Away goals remain

While UEFA scrapped the away-goal rule this season, Africa has kept a system that doubles the value of away goals in a two-leg aggregate tie.

Since the last-eight round was established five seasons ago, just two quarter-finals have been decided on away goals, both won by USMA of Algeria.

Penalty shootouts settled two more draws, one goal separated teams in seven more, and Wydad Casablanca of Morocco won by five goals.

Consistent Esperance

Since their debut in 2017, Esperance, Ahly, and Wydad have all qualified for the quarter-finals.

Only one side has won both home and away in the last eight of the main African club championship.

This season, Esperance and Sundowns are unblemished in Champions League qualification and group games, while Setif has five defeats in ten games.

Also Read

New York City, Seattle Sounders on top as MLS sides dominate in CONCACAF Champions League

NEW YORK: Major League Soccer clubs dominated the first quarter-finals of the...