2020 / 2021 CAF Champions League Reviews

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2020 / 2021 CAF Champions League Reviews

April 28, 2021, by Toby Banks

2020 / 2021 CAF Champions League

The CAF Champions League is the most important international club tournament in Africa. Organized by the African Football Confederation (CAF), the 2019-20 season is the 56th edition of this tournament. In his competition participate 61 teams from 49 federations. The team Espérance of Tunis is the current champion and has won the last two editions of it. This competition has a qualifying phase, a group stage, and a final stage. The group stage involves 16 teams divided into four groups. On the other hand, the final stage is divided into the quarter-final, semifinal, and grand final phases. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the CAF Champions League 2019-20 stopped before the semifinals occurred.

At that time, the four semifinalist teams were already defined. Among the most prominent teams during the group stage was TP Mazembe. It had a 4-2-0 unbeaten record and dominated group A with 14 points. Tunisia's Étoile du Sahel and Egypt's Al-Ahly qualified in a hotly contested Group B. South Africa's representative, Mamelodi Sundowns, led group C and finished this phase without losing a match (4-2-0). From group D, advanced the champion Espérance from Tunis and Raja Casablanca from Morocco.

So, the following clubs played the quarter-finals:

TP Mazembe (R.D. of Congo),
Zamalek and Al-Ahly (Egypt),
Étoile du Sahel and Espérance of Tunis (Tunisia),
Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa),
Wydad Casablanca and Raja Casablanca (Morocco).

These teams were distributed into four pairings through a draw. Two Moroccan and two Egyptian teams advanced to the semifinals. Raja Casablanca topped TP Mazembe with a 2-1 aggregate score. Likewise, Wydad Casablanca achieved the same result against Étoile du Sahel. For their part, Zamalek left the defending champions behind, while Al-Ahly beat Mamelodi Sundowns 3-1 on aggregate. The semifinals will be in round-trip matches. Wydad Casablanca will face Al Ahly. Meanwhile, Raja Casablanca will play against Zamalek. The outward journey will be in Egypt and the return in Morocco. As for the final, it would take place on November 9, 2020.

If an Egyptian team and a Moroccan team meet in it, it will be on neutral ground. Otherwise, it would take place in one of the two countries. These four teams accumulate 18 titles and 27 African Champions League finals. The one with the most titles is Al Ahly with 8. TP Mazembe and Zamalek follow it with five titles each. As for the most outstanding players, we have the Algerian Karim Aribi from Étoile du Sahel with eleven goals. This player leads the tournament's scorers, but his club is already out of the competition. Zamalek's Egyptian Mostafa Mohamed, with seven goals, is the second-highest scorer and still can reach or surpass Aribi. In recent decades, North African teams dominated the tournament, winning 22 of its previous 28 editions. As we can see, in the 2019-2020 CAF Champions League, this supremacy will continue. We will wait a little longer and meet the new champion and Africa's representative at the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup.

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