Home Sports CAF Champions League: Junior Ajayi Turns Hero As Al Ahly Knockout Esperance

CAF Champions League: Junior Ajayi Turns Hero As Al Ahly Knockout Esperance

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Junior Ajayi
Junior Ajayi in action...

Nigeria International striker, Junior Ajayi has helped Al Ahly to beat Esperance, at Rades to reach their first CAF Champions Leagues semi-final in four years.

The former Shooting Stars Sports Club player’s 62nd minute header was all the Egyptian club needed to seal 2-1 comeback win against Tunisian heavyweights and booked their semi-final slot after their 2-2 draw in the first leg of the encounter.

Esperance broke the deadlock minutes to half time as Sherif Ekramy fouled Khenissi in the 37th minute and the referee, Alioum Neant, awarded Esperance Tunis a penalty which Khenissi scored for his sixth goal of the 2017 CAF Champions League.

El Badry introduced Ajayi for Zakaria at the start of the second half. The scoreline also changed on restart of the match when Ali Maaloul equalized in the 50th minute.

The fullback was on hand to poke home after a mix up, in the Esperance defense, brought on by Abdallah Said’s cross.

Another former CS Sfaxien player, Junior Ajayi was on hand to punish Esperance Tunis further with the second goal for Al Ahly. The Nigerian put his 62nd minute header past Ben Cherifia after Maaloul did great work to set him up.

Esperance were forced to look to their bench if they were to avoid elimination. Faouzi Benzarti brought on, former Sfaxien duo, Sassi and Ben Youssef. But the Tunis giants found it difficult to come close to scoring.

One freekick chance in the 84th minute came the way of Chalali, again, but this time his effort did not trouble Ekramy. Al Ahly had their turn to try and score five minutes later but Azarou could not score when he was one-on-one with the Esperance goalie.

The missed chance did not hurt Ahly too much as they held onto their 2-1 lead to qualify 4-3 on aggregate. This result ensured the Cairo side reached the CAF Champions League semis for the first time since 2013.

They become the second team to reach the semi-finals after USM Alger. Al Ahly will play the winner between Al Ahli Tripoli and Etoile Sahel in the last four. The other spot will be decided between Sundowns and Wydad Casabalanca.

Packaged by Lanre Olabisi

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