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Rabat – The Moroccan football club Wydad clinched today a 2-1 victory against South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg of the African Football League Final at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca.
In the seventh minute upon the start, Wydad’s winger Montasser Lahtimi was on the brink of opening the scoring for his team, but the defense intervened on time to shield their goal.
In the 41st minute, however, the same player attempted a pass which Sundown’s defender Rivaldo Coetzee deflected to score an own goal, thus ending the first half 1-0 for Wydad.
In the second half, the South African team managed to bounce back and tie the scoring from a penalty shot in the 74th minute.
Less than five minutes later, Wydad’s midfielder Anas Serrhat sent a powerful ball which left no room for the goalkeeper Ronwen Williams to save it, to earn Wydad a second goal.
For the remainder of the second half, both sides had been attacking and putting pressure on each other, but the Moroccan team managed to maintain the score and clinch victory of the competition’s first-leg final.
The second-leg final of this new competition is set to take place on November 12 at 2 p.m. Moroccan Time, and will be played at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in South Africa.
In the semi-finals of this ongoing competition on November 1, Wydad defeated Tunisia’s Esperance Tunis on penalties 5-4, following a 1-1 score on aggregate.
Wydad’s performance in the two matches against Tunis was satisfactory, despite their opponents’ recovery in the second leg. However, Wydad’s goalkeeper Youssef El Motie saved well from Rodrigo Rodrigues’ penalty.
For its part, Sundowns defeated Egypt’s Al Ahly 1-0 in the second-leg of the semi-final match, with midfielder Junior Mendieta scoring in the 84th minute.
At the pre-match press conference held in Casablanca on Saturday, Wydad’s coach Adil Ramzi said that “this is a final that we are proud to play, after a very difficult competition during which we honored Moroccan football.”
Playing in Africa in such a short time shows the Casablanca club has a strong and cohesive squad, the coach added.
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