Al Ahly clinched the eighth CAF Super Cup title in the club's history after a thrilling victory over Morocco's Raja Casablanca at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium.
The regular time of the match ended in a 1-1 draw and we had to experience a breathtaking penalty shootout to win the title.
Tonight's victory gave us our second CAF Super Cup title in a row and our 24th continental title.
Unfortunate Start
Before the start of the match, Amr El Soulia picked up an injury and could not feature in the game, so Yasser Ibrahim joined the field instead of our experienced midfielder.
We were 1-0 down after inside 13 minutes as Abdelilah Madkour sprinted down the right flank and delivered a cross that was deflected from Yasser Ibrahim into our net.
From that moment, we kept pushing for the equalizer with our defense putting on a strong performance to break all of Raja's quick counter-attacks.
Our attacks kept flowing towards Raja's goal, but the Moroccan defense was ready to contain our crosses that failed to find our attacking players.
Second half
Our coach Pitso Mosimane used his bench at the beginning of the second half, as Ayman Ashraf was replaced by Mohamed Sherif.
The formation changed from 3-4-3 to 4-2-3-1 and we started the second half with frontline pressure against the deep-sitting team.
The minutes went on and in the 61st minute, Mosimane made his second substitution as Ahmed Abdelkader entered the game instead of Hussien El Shahat, then Yasser Ibrahim left the field for Taher Mohamed Taher, boosting our attacking force.
Despite the complete dominance of the midfield, we failed to break their defense and our passes between their lines were monitored and stopped before reaching the final third.
We were close to equalizing the score in the 79th minute, as Ali Maaloul delivered a cross to Tau, who failed to control the ball with a back-heel touch.
We kept trying to score the equalizer and when the 90th minute ticked on the clock, Taher, hero of the day, announced his arrival.
Mohamed Sherif sent a brilliant pass inside the box that reached Afsha, who fired a shot but his efforts were blocked by Raja's goalkeeper.
Tau then managed to collect the rebound and with a staggering pass, he delivered the ball to Taher, who fired the ball into the back of the net to equalize the score in the dying minutes of the game.
Taher’s brilliant shot sent us to the penalty shoot-out. He also managed to join five of our players who stood up for the mission, scoring the six penalty kicks, while the Moroccan side missed one penalty, handing us a brilliant victory.
