Ex Ahly coach Garrido leads Etoile Sportive du Sahel to gun down 10 men Al Ahly in opener of CAF Champions League
Etoile du Sahel welcomed Egyptian big fish Al Ahly to Stade Olympique de Rades for their opening game in the 2019-2020 CAF Champions League group stage. Carlos Garrido in his first CAF Champions League game called a strong line up but surprisingly dropped Darwin Gonzalez and Karim Aribi.
Rene Weiler on the other hand, paraded his favorite lineup with Mohamed El-Shenawy in posts and Ahmed Fathi, Ali Maaloui, Walid Soliman, Ramadan Sobhi and Oluwafemi Ajayi all in action against Etoile on Friday evening.
Al Ahly started the game on a brighter note enjoying early possession but in a slow fashion. Ahly’s entertaining football failed to open the defense of Etoile inside the first ten minute of the game.
The best of chance inside the opening minutes fell the way of Etoile after Ayman Ashraf griped Etoile striker outside the box 13 minutes into the game. After seeing the center-back been exited from a straight red card, the resultant free kick hit the defense wall.
The home side capitalized on the numerical advantage, controlling the game from the time of the red card to the 40’ minute mark, however, Etoile was still lacking the creativity up front. During this period, Al Ahly had solely depended on the counter breaks mainly through the channel of Ramadan Sobhi down the right flank.
Five minutes to the end of the first half, the home side grew in confidence and trying to be quick on the ball but the lack of decisiveness upfront was still the main problem for Garrido’s men in the entire first.
But nothing is to be taken from Ahly as they looked the matured side of the two and were dangerous few times during close of the first half especially if the ball fell the way of their leading striker Ajayi up front.
Five minute into the second half, skipper Yassine Chikhaoui broke the deadlock for Etoile running through the Ahly defense to chest Mohammed Mathnani’s stunning mini slide pass over the top of Ahly defense before the former buried the ball beyond Ahly keeper Mohamed El-Shenawy.
Ahly took the game to Etoile in the last 10 minutes asking questions around their opponents’ box but Etoile remained resilient to prevent Ahly from opening their defense for the equalizer.
Etoile have claimed their first three points in group B whiles Al Hilal also see off Platinum 2-1 in the other group game.
