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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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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS

Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team returned to Europe on Wednesday for the first time since its fans were assaulted in the Netherlands earlier this month in attacks that were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Israel and across Europe.
The team will face off Thursday against Türkiye’s Besiktas in an Europa League match that was relocated to Hungary. The contest at Nagyerdei Stadium in the city of Debrecen will be played without fans due to security concerns following the violence in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 that resulted in five people being treated in hospitals and dozens of detentions.

Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Zarko Lazetic told a news conference on Wednesday that his team was focused on its game, regardless of what tensions may exist elsewhere, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a question for me what happened outside of the stadium. We saw some videos and everything, but we really try to focus on football,” he said. “We’ll see tomorrow what is the effect.”
The violence in Amsterdam came after local authorities banned pro-Palestinian demonstrators from gathering outside the stadium where Maccabi was playing Dutch team Ajax.
A large crowd of Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the match, video showed. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them, according to Amsterdam’s mayor.
The city's police commander said the incidents had “an antisemitic character."
Maccabi press officer Ofer Ronen-Abels said Wednesday the events in Amsterdam “had nothing to do with football."
Before the assaults, Besiktas had requested its home game against Maccabi, originally scheduled for Istanbul, to be moved to “neutral ground” over security concerns.
The club later said on social media that Hungary was the only country willing to host the match and that Hungarian authorities requested it be played behind closed doors.
Hungary has hosted several home games for Israel's national team for security reasons since the war in Gaza began.
Maccabi held its final practice session at the Kiryat Shalom training complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday before departing for Hungary, the team said on its website.