Egyptian giants, Al Ahly survived a major scare to qualify for the quarterfinals of the CAF Champions League with a 1-1 draw away to Al Hilal in Omdurman on Saturday night.
With the result, the Red Devils finish in second place in Group B on 11 points, behind group winners, Etoile du Sahel, who saw off FC Platinum in a game played concurrently.
The competitions leading scorer, Karim Aribi scored his 10th goal of the campaign after half-time for Etoile to break the deadlock against Platinum before Malek Baayou added a second in a 2-0 win.
Elsewhere, Mamelodi Sundowns needed only a draw against Wydad Casablanca to clinch top spot, but got all three thanks to Ricardo Nascimento’s penalty to give the Brazillians a 1-0 win in Pretoria.
Wydad almost drew level at the death with Kazadi Kasengu having his header well saved by Denis Onyango.
In Algiers, USM Alger were on the verge of securing their first win in Group C, until Hermenegildo ‘Picas’ Sengui and Brazilian Antonio ‘Tony’ Ribeiro scored in the space of 60 seconds for Petro Luanda to snatch a 2-2 draw.
Etoile will be joining other group winners, TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Esperance of Tunisia as the seeded teams for the last-eight draw.
While Egyptian giants, Al- Ahly and Zamalek will be in the other half of the draw alongside Casablanca clubs, Wydad and Raja.
Full results:
Group A:
TP Mazembe (DR Congo) 3-1 Zesco Utd (Zambia)
Primeiro de Agosto (Angola) 0-0 Zamalek (Egypt)
Group B:
Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia) 2-0 Platinum (Zimbabwe)
Al Hilal (Sudan) 1-1 Al Ahly (Egypt)
Group C:
Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) 1-0 Wydad Casablanca (MAR)
USM Alger (Algeria) 2-2 Petro Luanda (Angola)
Group D:
JS Kabylie (Algeria) 1-0 Esperance (Tunisia, holders)
Raja Casablanca (Morocco) 1-0 AS Vita Club (DR Congo)
The draw for the knockout phase takes place on the 5th February, in Cairo.
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