AfricaPress-Tanzania: CLINICAL and tactical Simba cut Africa reigning champions Al Ahly down to size with a 1-0 win in the Match Day Two of last 16 CAF Champions League clash at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
Luis Miquissone scored a contender for goal of the season in the first half, as the home team was so clinical and tactical throughout 90 minutes to win
maximum points.
This marks back to back victories for the Reds, as they sit top of Group A of the continental top tier club championship with maximum six points from two matches.
In their opening match of the group, Simba recorded a 1-0 win away to AS Vita in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) some two weeks ago.
moreover In yesterday’s encounter,
Simba did not only win with such bragging authority against the nine times African champions but they were dominant and classy, reducing the Egyptian giants to a normal local league side.
In a nutshell, the display left Ahly players and officials’ arms akimbo and with bruising defeat. The game did not take a while to heat up,
and in the space of a few minutes, one brilliant play on each side got things going.
From the onset, Ahly battled to slow things down as Simba were pushing for an early opener.
Lone striker Chris Mugalu stretched Ahly defenders to the limit and in the 3rd minute he almost created a chance for himself but his shot was pushed away by goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy for an abortive corner.
Then, Mohamed Hussein’s long range shot went few inches wide for El Shenawy relief as he was in trouble in most of the first half.
Simba survived the scare in the 8th minute when Hamdi Fathi set piece forced keeper Aishi Manula to a full stretch to fist the ball away and was fouled in the process.
In the 10th minute, Simba threw a chance when overlapping right wing back Shomary Kapombe delayed to arrive at a drop ball in the box only to allow keeper to easily collect the ball.
Then in the 16th minute Mahmoud Kahraba nearly caught Simba defender napping but his first time shot sailed well wide. Simba went ahead after half an hour mark as the multi-talented Mozambique attacking midfielder scored a sensational goal.
Miquissone latched onto a low pass from Clatous Chama before the diminutive attacker took a sharp turn, twisted past defender and fired his shot at the top corner past diving experienced Ahly goalkeeper El Shenawy.
Simba had a nice spell of interchange of passes in the 38th minute,
but Kapombe’s cross was tipped off by the keeper and five minutes before the interval Hussein shot after neat exchange of passes with Chama narrowly sailed wide.
After the break, Rally Bwalya came in for Hassan Dilunga, who also had a decent game.
then Simba suffered a huge blow in the 68th minute, when defensive midfielder Thadeo Lwanga,
who was playing through pain, had to be stretched off and was replaced by versatile Erasto Nyoni.
From then, Simba slowed the tempo as the visitors pressed hard for an equaliser but the Reds defence well marshaled by Joash Onyango and Pascal Wawa remained vigilant and resolute.
In the 71st minute, Muzamiru Yassin, who had a great game, fired a cracking shot that took a slight deflection off a defender to a corner kick. It all started from Miquissone, who set up Bwalya before the Zambian released Muzamiru.
In the 90th minute Manula made a super save to deny Ahly an equaliser. He parried off a shot by Ahly striker to corner kick.
Tuesday’s victory for Simba marked their third home victory over Ahly with their first recorded in 1984 at the CCM Kirumba Stadium in Mwanza,
the second one was in February 2019 at the then National Stadium now Benjamini Mkapa Stadium.
In another group A match played in Omdurman of Sudan the hosts El Merreikh lost 4-1 to visitors AS Vita from DRC Congo.
It was the second consecutive defeat for El Merreikh in the group after losing 3-0 against Ahly in Cairo in Egypt.
AS Vita settle second after their win against Al-Merreikh which saw the Sudanese settle at the bottom without a point.
