Al Ahly have recorded a historic victory in Tanzania over Simba to take a valuable 1-0 win into the second leg in Cairo.

Having finished top of their group, Al Ahly had to travel to Dar es Salaam to face Tanzanian giants Simba in the first-leg of the CAF Champions League quarter-final.

Marcel Koller was forced to be without several of his key players, including goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shennawy, Emam Ashour, and Yasser Ibrahim.

Al Ahly XI: Mostafa Shobier, Mohamed Hany, Mohamed Abdelmonem, Yasser Ibrahim, Ali Maaloul; Marwan Ateya, Ahmed Nabil Kouka, Amr El-Soulya, Hussein El-Shahat, Percy Tau, Anthony Modeste.

The Reds started on the right foot from the start and they managed to take the lead after just five minutes as a low cross from Hany was converted by Che Malone into his own net, but keeper Ayoub Lakred managed to parry it in the path of Kouka, who easily tapped it in.

The goal was Ahmed Nabil Kouka’s first-ever in professional football in his 46th appearance for Al Ahly.

Simba dominated the rest of the half and could have scored more than once if it wasn’t for Shobier, who denied Che Malone, Sadio Kanouté, and Saidi Ntibazonkiza on three different occasions.

It was the same story in the second-half as the hosts continued their dominance, but without troubling Mostafa Shobier.

Hoping to control the ball back, Marcel Koller brought on Taher Mohamed, Reda Slim, Kahraba, and Afsha for Percy Tau, El-Shahat, Modeste, and Marwan Ateya in the 67th and 73rd minutes.

Coming on from the bench, Luís Miquissone almost scored against his former club in the 88th minute, but was brilliantly denied by Mostafa Shobier.

Kahraba had two massive chances to kill off the tie ahead of the second-leg, but he couldn’t hit both at the target as the game ended in a 1-0 win for the African champions.

The win is Al Ahly’s first-ever in Tanzania against Simba and both teams will now face each other again next week in Cairo to determine the team to advance to the semi-finals.