Al Ahli ---- ACL (R)

[JRedknapp11]

Holders Al Ahli of Egypt suffered a second successive defeat in the African Champions League to be left floundering at the foot of their group standings after the weekend's second round of matches.
The Cairo club suffered a controversial defeat in their group A match away to Raja Casablanca of Morocco, conceding a soft penalty and eventually losing 2-1.

[Emara]

Two weeks ago Ahly beat Mazembe 1-0 in Cairo to earn their first three points of the tournament.

Today, Ahly tied with Mazembe in Congo 0-0 in the return leg. Ahly had much of the ball possession and a 75th minute strike by Bilal almost gave us the victory but the ball struck the cross bar denying Ahly a much deserved victory.

Of course, the pitch was a total disgrace as BBC reported on their website and I dont understand how football in Africa will ever advance if CAF allows the highest club football to be played on such "stadiums"..

BBC:

Any chance of decent football was again ruined by the atrocious conditions in Lubumbashi on Saturday as the African Champions League title-holders Al Ahly kept alive their hopes in the competition.

EgyptianSoccer.com:

A comment on the Stade Kenya is surely in order. The ball spent most if it's time in the air or out of the pitch as both teams failed to properly control the ball, in what could possibly be one of the worst venues in the world. The CAF must take a stand on issues like these, as African soccer cannot progress if games of the highest competitive club level are played on such disgraceful pitches.

Anyways. Group A table looks like this now:

1. Mazembe 4 games 7 points
2. Raja 3 games 6 points
3. Ahly 4 games 4 points
4. Jean D'Arc 3 games 3 points

Believe me, Mazembe is such a bad team its not even understandable how they beat Raja 2-0 (probably because of the pitch). Their coach actually is happy their pitch sucks because apparently it "works out to their advantage"..

If Ahly win their next two games, regardless of all other results Ahly will qualify. Because they will have a better result over Mazembe and Raja (4 points from Mazembe, and 3 from Raja but with better goal difference hopefully)..

My prediction for this group:

1. Raja 12 points
2. Ahly 10 points
3. Mazembe 10 points
4. JDA 3 points

PS The first tie breaker is NOT goal difference, rather head to head results between the two concerned teams and in this case Ahly earned 4 points while Mazembe earned only 1 !