Zamalek have claimed a place in the 2019/20 Caf Champions League final in emphatic style, defeating Raja Casablanca 4-1 (5-1 on aggregate) in the second leg of their semifinal tie at Cairo International Stadium on Wednesday night.
The White Knights survived a sluggish start to the game and came good late on, setting up a dream final with Cairo derby rivals Al Ahly – managed by South Africa’s Pitso Mosimane – on November 27.
Raja created the first clear chance of the game, with a corner kick seeing Sanad Al Warfali heading on target in the 11th minute, but Zamalek goalkeeper Mohamed Abou-Gabal made a fine save.
That signalled a strong spell of dominance from the Moroccan visitors, who succeeded in forcing their hosts onto the back foot and creating several half-chances. This included a deflected cross in the 25th minute from Abdelilah Hafidi which was only kept out by a brilliant save from Abou-Gabal.
Despite their dominance, Raja were unable to find a way past the White Knights’ defence and the first half ended 0-0.
However, the Green Eagles picked up where they left off and finally broke through two minutes after the restart, with Ben Malango netting with a deflected shot which wrong-footed Abou-Gabal, making it 1-0 on the night and 1-1 overall.
The goal seemed to wake Zamalek up, with the Egyptian side clicking through the gears to begin piling the pressure on Raja.
The hosts levelled the game and reclaimed the aggregate lead in the 62nd minute, as Ferjani Sassi exchanged passed with Achraf Bencharki before sending a beautiful effort into the net via the inside of the post.
With the tie very much in the balance, both teams began pushing forward in attack, but it was the White Knights who struck the key blow on 85 minutes, as Mostafa Mohamed got on the end of a great cross from Ahmed Zizo and powered home a header to make it 2-1 on the night and 3-1 overall.
Mohamed netted again four minutes later to kill off Raja’s hopes, chesting down a long ball, breaking free of the defence and firing a low shot past goalkeeper Mohamed Bouamira, while Bencharki put the cherry on top with another strike deep in injury time to make it 4-1 at the fulltime whistle and 5-1 on aggregate.
Watch match highlights:
📽️ Thrilling match highlights from the second leg semi-final between Zamalek ⚪ & 🟢 Raja.#TotalCAFCL | #ZSCRCA | @ZSCOfficial | @RCAofficiel pic.twitter.com/98ANXVt6gU
— #TotalCAFCL 🏆 (@CAF_Online) November 4, 2020
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