Kahraba stars as Ahly eye African title after surviving scare

JOHANNESBURG: Egyptian giants Al-Ahly will hope for more goals from Mahmoud Kahraba as they chase a record-extending 11th CAF Champions League title having survived a huge group stage scare.

Ahly host three-time title winners Raja Casablanca this weekend in the most attractive quarterfinal pairing, with the return match in Morocco seven days later.

But in mid March it seemed Kahraba and his teammates would be following the knockout stage of the premier African club competition on TV rather than participating.

The Cairo Red Devils were five points adrift of the second and last qualifying place in Group B, and there were only two rounds remaining.

But four goals from Kahraba helped Ahly to convincing victories over Coton Sport of Cameroon and Al-Hilal of Sudan and second place behind Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa.

Hussein El Shahat was another Egyptian to pack a goalmouth punch, scoring twice against Hilal, who missed a penalty in the previous round against Sundowns that would have eliminated Ahly.

Winners of 23 CAF titles in four competitions, Ahly thrived against Hilal partly due to the backing from 50,000 of the most fanatical football supporters in Africa.

Egyptian authorities, who often restrict crowds to 10,000 or less for security reasons, have agreed to a 52,000 crowd for the visit of Raja and the tickets were quickly sold out.

While Ahly had an unexpectedly tough passage to the round of eight, Raja cruised through their mini-league, winning five matches, drawing the other, scoring 17 goals and conceding three.

Though vastly superior to Simba of Tanzania, Horoya of Guinea and Vipers of Uganda, the Moroccans did not face as strong a level of opposition as Ahly.

What Raja do possess, under Tunisian