BIDVEST Wits bombed out of the Caf Champions League at their Bidvest Stadium stronghold yesterday, losing 1-0 on aggregate to Egyptian super club Al Ahly in their first round, second leg tie.
It was easy to see why Al Ahly are the most successful side in African football history and have won this trophy eight times.
They gave the Clever Boys a lesson on how to defend a 1-0 lead from the first leg played in Cairo last weekend for the entire 90 minutes yesterday.
Al Ahly kept their shape and discipline, and were rarely troubled by an out-of-sorts Wits.
The home side were disappointing and, despite the crowd getting behind them, failed to impress.
They now find themselves relegated to Caf’s second tier competition, the Confederation Cup.
There was a decent sized crowd despite Wits hiking up the price of tickets from R40 to R100.
The visitors had a fair amount of support in the 3 000-strong crowd.
Al Ahly’s defensive tactics frustrated the home side, who struggled to get through the packed wall of defenders.
The visitors were content to sit back on their 1-0 lead and hit the Students on the counter-attack.
There was little excitement in the opening first half, where neither side were prepared to take the initiative.
The crowd got some entertainment for their R100 in a dull first half with the circus act from the Al Ahly bench.
Every time a decision went against them there was an eruption of anger, which eventually boiled over in the 35th minute when Angolan referee Helder Martins de Carvalho sent off Al Ahly’s goalkeeping coach Tereq Suleiman after he had repeatedly complained to the match official.
Wits eventually had a shot on target when a powerful header from Buhle Mkhwanazi was brilliantly blocked by keeper Sherif Ekramy in injury time.
Then Al Ahly got another let-off when Gabadinho Mhango’s shot from the resultant corner dented the post.
Wits started to show more urgency, especially when Eleazar Rodgers replaced out-of-touch James Keene on 63 minutes.
Rodgers was prepared to have a go and twice forced Ekramy to make dramatic saves as the home side searched for the goal that would keep them in the competition.
But Al Ahly showed how dangerous they are on the break when striker Amr Gamal hit the woodwork four minutes from time with keeper Moeneeb Josephs beaten.
