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Egypt’s Al Ahly Produce Emphatic Away Win in Champions League Semi

FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
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Egypt’s Al Ahly Produce Emphatic Away Win in Champions League Semi

FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
FILE: Al Ahly players celebrate after Al Ahly's Mohamed Afsha scored his side's opening goal during the FIFA Club World Cup soccer match between Seattle Sounders FC and Al Ahly FC in Tangier, Morocco, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

A double from striker Percy Tau and a third goal from Mahmoud Kahraba handed Egypt’s Al Ahly a runaway 3-0 away triumph over Esperance of Tunisia in the first leg of their African Champions League semi-final on Friday.

Tau, the South African international who previously played at Brighton & Hove Albion, opened the scoring with a left-footed drive after eight minutes and doubled the lead 10 minutes into the second half as the Cairo club made a giant stride in their bid to reach next month’s final.

Kahraba applied the final touch to a swift counter-attack in the 75th minute to add a third goal and leave Esperance with a near impossible task in next weekend’s return in Cairo, Reuters reported.

Friday’s game was played behind closed doors as punishment for crowd violence when Esperance beat JS Kabylie of Algeria in their quarter-final last month.

Al Ahly are Africa’s most successful club with 10 previous Champions League titles and have reached five of the last six finals. They were runners-up to Wydad Casablanca last year.

Wydad host Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday.

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Liverpool Shines in Champions League, Dumping Real Madrid Down the Table

Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
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Liverpool Shines in Champions League, Dumping Real Madrid Down the Table

Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL
Liverpool manager Arne Slot gives the thumb up after the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Liverpool, Britain, 27 November 2024. Liverpool won 2-0. EPA/PETER POWELL

Liverpool is 100% on top of the Champions League after dumping title holder Real Madrid into an almost unbelievable 24th place in the 36-team standings on Wednesday.
No one felt the embarrassment of Madrid’s 2-0 loss at Anfield more than Kylian Mbappé, the superstar added in the offseason by the storied club that also was European champion against Liverpool in the finals of 2022 and 2018.
Mbappé had a penalty saved in the second half and was earlier dumped on his behind by Conor Bradley’s superb tackle in an instant viral moment, The Associated Press reported.
Only Liverpool has started the new Champions League format with five wins and first-year coach Arne Slot's team is two points clear of Inter Milan. Barcelona is third, trailing Liverpool by three points.
Madrid is, remarkably, with three rounds left just one place above being eliminated. The top eight teams at the end of January go direct to the round of 16 in March, and teams placed from ninth to 24th enter a round of two-leg playoffs in February.
“(This) doesn’t change much, because even with a win it was going to be tough to secure a top-eight finish,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. ”It was a fair result."
Monaco missed a chance to go second in the table, giving up a lead playing with 10 men from the 58th minute in a 3-2 loss at home to Benfica. Swiss forward Zeki Amdouni scored the winning goal in the 88th.
Borussia Dortmund, the beaten finalist against Madrid in May, is up to fourth place after beating Dinamo Zagreb 3-0. Champions League standout Jamie Gittens now has four goals in five games, curling a rising shot in the 41st to open the scoring in Croatia.
The best comeback was at PSV Eindhoven, where the home team trailed Shakhtar Donetsk by two goals in the 87th minute before a 3-2 win was sealed by United States forward Ricardo Pepi’s goal deep in stoppage time.
US defender Cameron Carter-Vickers scored an embarrassing own goal for Celtic — playing a no-look pass far beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel — in a 1-1 draw with Club Brugge.
“One of those things,” Schmeichel said. “Cam gets pressed and he hasn’t heard me shout that I’m not in (goal).”
Congo teammates Ngal’Ayel Mukau and Silas impressed in wins for Lille and Red Star Belgrade.
Mukau scored twice in 12th-place Lille’s 2-1 win at Bologna and Silas leveled for Red Star in a 5-1 rout of Stuttgart, though he barely celebrated his goal. Silas is on loan with the Serbian champion from Stuttgart.
Aston Villa's 0-0 draw with Juventus was preserved by an excellent save by Emiliano Martinez, the World Cup-winning Argentina goalkeeper, diving low to push away a header from Francisco Conceição.
Bradley beats Mbappé Liverpool’s stand-in right back Bradley was a standout Wednesday, denying Mbappé at high speed in a signature defensive play in the 32nd.
The 21-year-old Northern Ireland defender, deputizing for fit-again Trent Alexander-Arnold, joined the attack in the 52nd to play a key pass returning the ball to Alexis Mac Allister who scored the opening goal.
After Mbappé’s penalty was pushed away by goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher in the 61st, Liverpool star Mo Salah missed with his spot-kick in the 70th, before substitute Cody Gakpo sealed the win with a header in the 77th.
Madrid now has lost three of five games after defeats at Lille and at home to AC Milan. The record 15-time European champion has another tough trip next, at fifth-place Atalanta on Dec. 10. On the same date, Liverpool is at 30th-place Girona and looks to be cruising into the round of 16.
“You know how special it is to play against a team that has won the Champions League so many times," Liverpool coach Slot said of Madrid. “They were a pain for Liverpool for many years too.”
First wins, first points Red Star Belgrade and Sturm Graz ended four-game losing runs to get their first points and wins.
Red Star rallied against Stuttgart after the German team led in the fifth minute. The 1991 European Cup winner’s goal to level the game in the 12th was scored by on-loan Silas. He held up his hands as if in apology as part of a low-key celebration.
Sturm Graz won 1-0 against Girona, the Spanish newcomer to European competitions. It was the Austrian champion’s first Champions League game since coach Christian Ilzer left to join Hoffenheim.