The Moroccan team, Wydad, will host its South African counterpart, Sun Downs, in a fiery confrontation at ten in the evening, today, Saturday, at the Mohammed V Sports Complex Stadium, in the first leg of the semi-final first leg of the CAF Champions League version of the 2022-2023 season..
Wydad, led by its new Belgian coach Sven Vandenbroeck, who took over the task as successor to Spain’s Juan Carlos Garrido, aims to exploit the land and crowd workers in tonight’s match to achieve a comfortable victory over Sun Downs, helping him to settle qualification before the second leg of the tournament, which is scheduled to be held next Saturday in South Africa..
Moroccan Wydad had announced Garrido’s dismissal from coaching the team, after a tie with the FAR, in the league championship, to be succeeded by Belgian Sven Vandenbroek..
Moroccan Wydad plans to preserve its title as the CAF Champions League champion for the second time in a row, as it won the title of the last version at the expense of Al-Ahly with two goals to one, while the South African team seeks to crown the title that has been absent from its coffers since last 2016..
Wydad qualified for the semi-finals of the African Champions League, after narrowly defeating Tanzanian Simba with a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals, while Mamelodi Sun Downs reserved a seat, by overwhelmingly defeating the Algerian youth of Belouizdad..
It is expected that the winner from the Wydad Summit and Sun Downs will qualify for the final match, to face the winner between the Egyptian Al-Ahly and the Tunisian Esperance Sports Club..
The Wydad Casablanca team qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament with difficulty, after suffering a loss in the first leg against Simba Tanzanian with a goal without a response, and then achieved victory in the return match with the same result, so that the two teams resorted to penalty kicks in which the Moroccan team outperformed 4-3..
While the South African Sun Downs team rose after it succeeded in defeating the Algerian youth of Belouizdad, back and forth, with scores of 4-1 and 2-1, to continue its journey and its great performances in the championship..
This is the ninth time that the Moroccan team has been able to qualify for the semi-final round of the tournament after qualifying before eight full times, out of 14 participants in the entire tournament, and has decided to qualify for the final match five times, won the title three times, and was crowned Runner-up twice.
Whereas, the South African team participated in the tournament 14 times before, and this edition is the 15th edition, but it was only able to reach the Golden Square only three times in 2001, 2016, and 2019, and it advanced to the final twice. The title once at the expense of Zamalek.
Wydad and Sun Downs met in 10 previous matches in the CAF Champions League, and the Moroccan team managed to win four matches, suffer a loss in three matches, and draw in three others, and the duo scored 13 goals, the largest share was in favor of Wydad Al-Ummah with seven goals..
The Sun Downs team excelled in its last confrontation with Wydad Casablanca in the last round of the group stage in the CAF Champions League, in 2020, with a goal without a response.
