{"id":4741,"date":"2026-02-14T20:46:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/caf-cl-al-hilal-sundowns-and-esperance-reach-quarters"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:41:43","slug":"caf-cl-al-hilal-sundowns-and-esperance-reach-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/caf-cl-al-hilal-sundowns-and-esperance-reach-quarters","title":{"rendered":"CAF CL: Al Hilal, Sundowns and Esperance Reach Quarters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>Sudan\u2019s Al Hilal and South Africa\u2019s Mamelodi Sundowns secured qualification for the CAF Champions League quarterfinals, with Al Hilal beating DR Congo\u2019s Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo 1-0 and Sundowns defeating Algeria\u2019s MC Alger 2-0 in the sixth and final round of the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Al Hilal finished top of the group after raising their tally to 11 points, two ahead of Sundowns. MC Alger ended the group stage third with seven points, while Saint-E\u0301loi finished bottom with five.<\/p>\n<p>Stevin Epoela scored the only goal in the 26th minute after receiving the ball outside the box, driving forward and firing a powerful shot from a tight angle that found the net.<\/p>\n<p>Saint-E\u0301loi\u2019s Junior Mendy was sent off one minute before halftime after receiving a second yellow card. Al Hilal\u2019s Salah Eddine Adel was also shown a red card in the 75th minute for a second booking.<\/p>\n<p><b>MC Alger exit<\/b><\/p>\n<p>MC Alger lost 2-0 away to Sundowns and were eliminated, even though a draw would have been enough to reach the last eight.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Mouniez scored once in each half to send Sundowns through. He opened the scoring seven minutes in, capitalizing on a rebound from the MC Alger goalkeeper to turn the ball into the net.<\/p>\n<p>Mouniez doubled the lead in the 63rd minute, sealing a match in which MC Alger did not perform at their usual level.<\/p>\n<p><b>Esperance clinch qualification<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Tunisia\u2019s Espe\u0301rance Sportive de Tunis booked their place from Group D by beating Angola\u2019s Petro Atle\u0301tico 2-0 in the final round of the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Malian forward Aboubakar Diakite\u0301 put Esperance ahead in the 46th minute, before Burkinabe\u0300 attacker Jack Diarra added the second in the 81st.<\/p>\n<p>With the win, Esperance moved up to nine points in second place\u2014their second victory of the group stage. Petro Atle\u0301tico\u2019s last hope of qualification ended as they exited the competition in third with six points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. Sudan\u2019s Al Hilal and South Africa\u2019s Mamelodi Sundowns secured qualification for the CAF Champions League quarterfinals, with Al Hilal beating DR Congo\u2019s Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo 1-0 and Sundowns defeating Algeria\u2019s MC Alger 2-0 in the sixth and final round of the group stage. Al Hilal finished top of the group after raising their tally to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CAF CL: Al Hilal, Sundowns and Esperance Reach Quarters - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. Sudan\u2019s Al Hilal and South Africa\u2019s Mamel ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/caf-cl-al-hilal-sundowns-and-esperance-reach-quarters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAF CL: Al Hilal, Sundowns and Esperance Reach Quarters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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