Gor Mahia's Champions League dreams at risk after Al Ahly thrashing

Kenya's Gor Mahia have a mountain to climb in their quest to qualify for the group stage of the 2024/25 Caf Champions League after they lost 3-0 to holders Al Ahly of Egypt in the first leg of the second preliminary round at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Sunday.

A brace by the impressive Percy Muzi and another goal by Ramy Hisham helped the 12-time winners kick start their title defence on a high. 

Al Ahly, who are nicknamed the Red Devils, are among the highly ranked teams that began this season’s campaign in the second preliminary round. They have won the Egyptian League title a record 44 times.

Gor, who have lifted the Kenyan Premier League a record 21 times, progressed to this stage of the Caf Champions League following their 5-2 aggregate win over South Sudanese side Al Merreikh Bentiu in the first preliminary round.

The two teams clash on Saturday in Cairo in the return leg with the aggregate winner clinching a berth to the group stage.
More than 20,000 graced the match, which was the first meeting in history between the two sides.

Despite Al Ahly being the away team, a sizable number of their supporters, the majority donning the team’s famous red t-shirts were at the stadium to cheer them.

They rented the air with vuvuzela sounds, which combined with the cheers and drum beats from the K’Ogalo’s supporters to create an electric atmosphere at the 30,000-seater capacity stadium.

Gor coach Martins Neiva blamed his side’s huge loss on mistakes. 

“We played well, good football but they punished us for mistakes. They are experienced and managed the game very well, but I am satisfied with the general performance of the boys. In the second half, they sat behind and we tried our best to score,” said the Brazilian, who also thanked the home fans for turning in their numbers to cheer K’Ogalo. 

His Al Ahly counterpart, Marcel Martin said: “We are very happy that we have won against a strong team. But this is not the end, the next game will not be easy and we should give everything to win the match.”

Gor started the contest strongly, their first chance to cause trouble for Al Ahly arriving in the fifth minute when they won a corner-kick, but Austine Odhiambo’s delivery was cleared.

But it was not long before the Egyptian side showed K’Ogalo why they are the most decorated football club in Africa. Hashim broke the deadlock with a close-range shot after connecting with Marrawan Attia’s cross inside the box. Even before the dust settled, the visitors doubled their advantage through Muzi. 

Al Ahly’s two-goal lead did not dampen Gor’s spirit as they continued hunting for a goal to reduce the deficit. Al Ahly goalkeeper and captain Mohamed Elsayed dived well to block Enock Morrison’s attempt in the 22nd minute, before a weighty cross by Gor’s assistant captain Godfrey Ochieng in the 32nd minute went begging inside Al Ahly’s box, to the huge disappointment of the home supporters, who were already on their feet ready to celebrate.  

The hosts made a double change four minutes later with Kennedy Onyango and captain Philemon Otieno making way for Paul Ochuoga and Alpha Onyango respectively.

Gor made another change at the restart, Musa Sharif coming in for Boniface Omondi. Muzi capitalised on another defence lapse by K’Ogalo to put the game beyond the hosts reach with a close-range shot. 

The goal looked to have disappointed Gor supporters as they began to leave the stadium. Two minutes to time, Musa thought he had reduced the deficit for Gor, but the goal was cancelled for offside.