The African Football HQ team deliver their last-minute predictions ahead of Saturday’s Caf Champions League final
Kaizer Chiefs vs Al Ahly might just be the biggest match in Amakhosi’s history, as they attempt to take on the serial African champions on Saturday to win the Caf Champions League.
As one of the continent’s biggest clubs—and the most prominent franchise in South African football—Chiefs have played in some blockbuster fixtures in their history.
Since their formation at the start of the 1970s, they’ve enjoyed regular success in domestic football, but continental glory has largely eluded them.
They’ve won the league 13 times—including four triumphs during the PSL era and a record five successes under the National Professional Soccer League format.
In South African cup competitions, they’ve won the MTN 8 more times than any other side, and it’s a similar story in the Telkom Knockout, the Vodacom Challenge, the Telkom Charity Cup and the Nedbank Cup.
However, while rivals Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns have both won the Champions League—Africa’s grandest prize—Chiefs have never got their hands on the biggest title in the continental game.
In 2001, they did win the African Cup Winners’ Cup—dispatching Interclube of Angola in the final—but that victory pales into comparison with the mouth-watering prospect of winning the Champions League on Saturday.
There’s no getting away from the fact that Chiefs are outsiders for the fixture, and this is reflected in our African Football HQ predictions, with three of the four members of the pod on our Caf Champions League special this week backing the Red Devils to go the distance.
Unlike Chiefs, Ahly do have immense pedigree in African continental competition.
They’ve won the continental crown a record nine times, and may have reached double figures by the end of the weekend—quite remarkable when contrasted to the fact that Chiefs had never before reached the latter stages of the Champions League before this season.
They’ve also won the Confederation Cup, seven Super Cups, and a host of other trans-continental honours—this experience of high-profile finals will surely serve the Egyptians well as they look to bring home more gold.
Then there’s also the experience of Pitso Mosimane—a champion with both Sundowns and Ahly—who knows Chiefs well from his long and successful stint in South African soccer.
Certainly, Amakhosi are up against it as they look to bring home the gold.