South African star Percy Tau is leading Al Ahly’s squad which has travelled to Pretoria for Sunday’s African Football League semifinal showdown against his former employers.
Tau has been in good form for the Egyptian giants and he is expected to apply his extensive knowledge of Mzansi football during the first-leg encounter at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Al Ahly have confirmed that the 29-year-old Bafana player is part of the squad that left Cairo on Thursday afternoon for Pretoria, hours after loosening up at El Tetsh in the morning of the same day.
Final training session in Cairo before the trip to South Africa 🦅 pic.twitter.com/ps793LPtJ0
— Al Ahly SC 🇬🇧 (@AlAhlyEnglish) October 26, 2023
According to FilGoal.com, another notable inclusion in the squad is former Borussia Dortmund striker Anthony Modest whereas Imam Ashouraddition, Amr Al-Soulia and Karim Fouad have been left behind due to injuries and other reasons.
The CAF Champions League kings will welcome the DStv Premiership landlords in the reverse fixture in Cairo on November 1 2023.
Sundowns saw off Petro de Luanda 2-0 on aggregate in the quarterfinal whereas Al Ahly got the better of Simba from Tanzania on an away goal rule after a three-all tie.
Al Ahly coach Marcel Koller has since expressed his satisfaction after reaching the last-four stage of the inaugural elite continental league.
"We had many big chances that could have changed the final result [against Simba] but we kept missing them. We cannot keep on missing those chances and we are working on that in training," Koller told his club’s website.
"We have reached the AFL semifinals. We can't win every match with a big result. This is not possible especially when you face big teams."
Al Ahly travelling squad:
Goalkeepers: Mohamed El-Shenawy, Mustafa Schubert, Mustafa Makhlouf.
Defenders: Mohamed Hani, Khaled Abdel Fattah, Akram Tawfiq, Mohamed Abdel Moneim, Rami Rabiaa, Yasser Ibrahim, Ali Maaloul, Karim Al-Dabis.
Midfield: Aliou Dieng, Marwan Attia, Ahmed Nabil "Koka", Karim Walid, Mohamed Magdy "Afsha", Hussein Al-Shahat, Reda Selim, Taher Mohamed Taher, Mohamed A, Dawy Christo, Percy Tau.
Strikers: Mahmoud Kahraba, Salah Mohsen, Anthony Modest