“Ashour’s hat-trick” leads Al-Ahly to a valuable victory in the African Champions League

Emam Ashour scored three hat-trick goals to lead Al-Ahly of Egypt to victory over Abidjan Stadium, Ivory Coast, 3-1, in a match in the fifth round of the third group of the African Champions League on Saturday at Stade Felix Houvette-Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, while Pyramids secured their qualification to the quarter-finals. The final was defeated by Sagrada Esperanza of Angola with a goal in the fourth group.
St. John Kone (26) advanced for the hosts, while Ashour scored (53, 73, 90 + 5) for Al-Ahly, which raised its score to 10 points at the top of the group before the match between Orlando Pirates of South Africa (8 points) and CS Belouizdad of Algeria (6 points), who meet. In Johannesburg on Sunday. Al-Ahly will host Orlando in Cairo, while Abidjan Stadium will host CS Belouizdad in Algeria at the end of the group matches next Saturday.
Before the start of the match, the Swiss Al-Ahly coach was forced to make an emergency change to his lineup after Akram Tawfiq suffered an injury during the warm-up, so Ahmed Nabil “Koka” entered in his place.
Al-Ahly almost took the lead in the first minute of the match when Ashour passed a cross to the Palestinian Wissam Abu Ali, 4 meters from the goal, but Abidjan Stadium goalkeeper, Derisa Bamba, blocked the ball with his foot, depriving Al-Ahly of an early lead.
El-Shenawy blocked the hosts’ first attempts in the tenth minute after a corner kick in which the ball reached Tidani Diomande, but his header found the hand of the Al-Ahly captain, who deflected it for a corner kick. In the 17th minute, Ashour shot a powerful ball from outside the penalty area, and Bamba caught it steadily.
The course of play reversed the lead of Abidjan Stadium in the 26th minute, when the ball reached St. John Kone outside the Al-Ahly penalty area. He took advantage of the fall of his goalkeeper, Yasser Ibrahim, and shot a powerful ball into the left corner of El-Shenawy’s goal, ending the first half with Abidjan Stadium leading by a goal.
At the beginning of the second half, Kohler brought on the duo Mohamed Magdy “Afshah” and Karim Walid “Nedved” instead of Al-Soulia and Karim Al-Dabis. Abu Ali shot a ball from a direct free kick, which Bamba caught steadily.
In the 53rd minute, Ashour equalized for Al-Ahly after Hussein Al-Shahat sent a cross from the right side, which Abu Ali met with a header that Ashour followed from close range into the net.
Khaled Abdel Fattah sent a cross from the right side, and Ashour met it with a header from inside the penalty area, but Bamba was unable to stop it, giving Al-Ahly a 2-1 lead (73).
Kohler brought in Mohamed Hani, who returned from injury, instead of Abdel Fattah. Then Ashour wasted a great opportunity when he was alone in the Mamba goal, but he strangely shot wide, before Yasser Ibrahim intervened at the right time to prevent substitute Youssef Koné’s shot before it reached the goal in the 87th minute.
In the last minutes, Kohler brought in Omar Al-Saei and Samir Muhammad instead of Abu Ali and Al-Shahat. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, after a counterattack, Omar Al-Saei passed the ball to Ashour, who shot hard into the goal to complete the hat-trick and give Al-Ahly a dear victory, bringing them closer to qualifying.
In another match held at the same time in Group Four, Pyramids defeated its host Sagrada Esperanza of Angola with a goal to ensure its qualification to the quarter-finals.
Marwan Hamdy (90 + 4) scored the only goal of the match, raising Pyramids’ score to 10 points at the top of the group, which will witness the match between Djoliba of Mali (2 points) and Esperance of Tunisia (7 points) on Sunday, while Sagrada’s score stopped at 5 points in third place. Pyramids concludes the group when it hosts Djoliba in Cairo, while Esperance hosts Sagrada in Tunisia next Saturday.