Egypt’s Pyramids FC defeat Sundowns to win CAF champions league

Pyramids FC of Egypt claimed their first-ever CAF Champions League title on Sunday, June 1, defeating South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 in the second leg of the final in Cairo to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory.

In only their second appearance in the continent’s premier club competition, Pyramids made history in front of a significantly larger crowd than usual at the 30 June Stadium. Pleas from the club for fan support ahead of the decisive leg saw roughly half of the 30,000-seat venue filled—an uptick from their typically modest attendance.

Fiston Mayele gave the home side the lead in the 23rd minute with his ninth goal of the tournament, capitalising on a loose clearance to fire across Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. Egyptian defender Ahmed Samy doubled the advantage early in the second half, heading in a Mohamed Chibi free kick in the 56th minute to notch his first goal of the campaign and become the club’s 19th scorer in the Champions League this season.

Mamelodi Sundowns, the 2016 champions, responded in the 75th minute through Iqraam Rayners, who latched onto a poor clearance to reduce the deficit. Despite late pressure from the South African visitors, they were unable to find the second goal needed to win the title on away goals.

Pyramids coach Krunoslav Jurcic, a former Croatian international, made a bold decision by benching forward Ibrahim Adel, who had scored six times en route to the final, in favour of ex-Premier League attacker Ramadan Sobhi. His counterpart, Portuguese tactician Miguel Cardoso, made a single change from the first leg as well, inserting midfielder Jayden Adams for Brazilian forward Arthur Sales.

Cardoso, who led Tunisia’s Esperance to last year’s final, became only the second manager after the late Argentine Oscar Fullone to guide different clubs to back-to-back CAF Champions League finals.

The first leg in Pretoria had ended 1-1 after a dramatic late equaliser from Walid el Karti for Pyramids, cancelling out Lucas Ribeiro’s opener for Sundowns.

The second leg was played under breezy conditions and saw a tense first half marked by physical duels, including a heated altercation between Pyramids’ Ahmed Atef and Sundowns’ Aubrey Modiba, which earned both players yellow cards from Somali referee Mohamed Diraneh Guled.

Sundowns came close to levelling just before halftime when Tashreeq Matthews broke through on goal, but his shot was saved by Pyramids goalkeeper Ahmed el Shenawy.

Despite enjoying more possession throughout the match, Sundowns struggled to break down a resilient Pyramids defence. Their goal from Rayners proved insufficient as the Egyptian side held on to win the title.

Before kickoff, Nigerian football icon Nwankwo Kanu presented the newly designed Champions League trophy on the touchline, adding a touch of symbolism to a historic evening for the Egyptian club.