Mass start for clubs in Champions League group phase

Tuesday marks the kickoff of the group phase of this season’s African Champions League with all 16 teams in action on the same day.

It will be like a massed start on a Formula One grid, and the outcome of the opening matches eagerly anticipated, with SuperSport televising the pick of the best clashes.

There are two South African representatives in the group phase for only the fourth time with both Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates holding out realistic hopes of taking the continent’s top club prize, if they can successfully navigate the perils of the fatigue-inducing travel and make sure of strong performances at home.

But while Sundowns compete in the group competition for a 10th successive season, Pirates have not been to this stage of the Champions League since 2019.

Their previous two bids ended in embarrassingly early round knockout defeats but this time they have made it into Group C where they have a tough start on Tuesday away at Chabab Belouizdad of Algeria.

Sundowns have little time to recover from Saturday’s shock loss in the Carling Knockout final to Magesi in Bloemfontein and must get over the disappointment before they face Maniema Union from the Democratic Republic of Congo at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria in Group B.

Maniema are participating in the pool phase for the first time as is the case with Stade Abidjan, even though the Ivorian club were the second-ever winners of the old-style African Champions Cup in 1966.

Stade face a baptism of fire, drawn away in Cairo in Group C against holders Al Ahly of Egypt, who have reached the last five Champions League finals and won four of them.

It is also the 22nd time that the Cairo giants compete in the group phase, a record they share with Esperance of Tunisia, who get their Group D campaign underway at home to Djoliba of Mali.

Remarkably this is the first time a club from Mali has made it into the group phase of the continent’s top club competition. Given how strong their national team has proven in continental competition and qualifiers, it is a surprise that Malian club sides have not produced better results.

The pool phase begins with two 3pm matches as DR Congo’s TP Mazembe host Mouloudia Alger in Lubumbashi and Young Africans are up against Al Hilal.

Yanga from Tanzania appointed former TS Galaxy coach Sead Ramovic in charge only last week after firing the Argentine Miguel Gamondi, who won the South African league as coach of Sundowns in 2006.

Al Hilal’s qualification for the group stage is remarkable given how their entire club has had to go into exile because of the civil war in Sudan.

They, and their major domestic rivals Al Merreikh, are now competing as guests in the league in Mauritania this season.

Sundowns’ major rivals in Group C will be the two Moroccan clubs, Raja Casablanca and Royal Armed Forces, who clash against each other in Casablanca.

Renovations to the cavernous Mohammed V stadium ahead of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals means Raja are hosting their matches at the much less intimidating Larbi Zaouli Stadium in the city.

Last season, Raja pipped the army club by a single point to the title in Morocco, and being paired in the same Champions League group only serves to extend their rivalry.

Pirates’ opponents Belouizdad, who signed Khanyisa Mayo from Cape Town City in mid-year, made a horror start to their season and fired their coach Corentins Martins, a former France international, earlier this month after only 12 weeks in the job.

But under his replacement Abdelkader Amrani they have won their last two Algerian league games. It will be a frosty reception. For Pirates – weather-wise at least – as they travel to north Africa.

The second round of group matches will be played on the weekend of December 6-8 and the group competition will be completed by mid-January.