Al Ahly’s in town so get set for fireworks

Al Ahly’s in town so

get set for fireworks

BIG CASH BOOSTS FOR SOCCER 10 TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

By Mark Gleeson

Percy Tau comes home tomorrow, but in the red colours of Egyptian giants Al Ahly as they take on Mamelodi Sundowns in Pretoria in the African Champions League.

Tau will be among Al Ahly’s key players as he goes up against his old Sundowns teammates, keen to remind them of his ability after a couple of injury-laden seasons.

The two clubs are now trailing in Group B after Al Hilal of Sudan beat Cameroon’s Coton Sport in midweek to go top of the standings and put the cat among the pigeons.

Al Hilal have nine points from four games while Sundowns have collected seven from three and Al Ahly have four.

There is now enormous pressure on the Egyptian giants to get something out of the game at Loftus Versfeld to say in contention, and by extension, that now means Sundowns are facing a torrid afternoon - as if it was not already going to be their most difficult home game of the season.

It is a vital for Sundowns’ immediate prospects to dominate the Egyptians and lay down a marker after years of threatening in the competition but then not following through.

The South African champions have qualified for the group phase every year since 2016, when they won the Champions League, but their best return since that success remains a single semi-final place. Al Ahly have been among the sides who have regularly stymied their progress - and past history in this tournament suggests there is nothing as dangerous as the Cairo giants with their backs to the wall.

The clash is the highlight of the weekend and forms the headline match in TAB’s four cash-added pools tomorrow - Soccer 4, 6, 10 and Any 13 Xtra. They are all great pools and collectively carry nearly R600,000 in cash bonuses from TAB, which makes them must-play bets.

In the Nedbank Cup tonight Cape Town Spurs will look to carry their form from the National First Division, in which they are in second place, into their second-round tie at Sekhukhune United, whose bubble seems to have burst after a good start when Brandon Truter arrived as coach.

Spurs have some exciting attacking talent and coach Shaun Bartlett has fused them with plenty of experienced old heads like Nazeer Allie, Clayton Daniels and Granwald Scott - all back at the club where they started their careers.

The game is included in tonight’s Soccer10, which starts with R200,000 from TAB and is expected to yield a pool of some R2 million!

In England, the Premier League title tussle continues between Arsenal and Manchester City and if the Gunners slip at Fulham on Sunday, Pep Guardiola’s men could cut the gap to just two points. City are away to Crystal Palace tomorrow and are expected to win, although their rivals are rarely easy to overcome.