CAF Champions League

Saturday

Smouha 1-1 Al Hilal

TP Mazembe 5-0 Moghreb

Friday

El Merreikh 1-0 USM AlgerEntente Setif 2-2 Mouloudia

CAPE TOWN – TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan’s Al Hilal clinched the last two semi-final places in this year’s African Champions League after a tense climax to Group A on Saturday.

Three clubs in the group, Mazembe, Hilal and Morocco’s Moghreb Tetouan, began the final round of matches level on eight points.

A Mbwana Samata hat-trick helped TP Mazembe go through with a resounding 5-nil win over Moghreb Tetouan, and Al Hilal progressed with a 1-1 draw away to Smouha in Egypt.

Four-time champions Mazembe will now play the Group B runners up, Al Merrikh of Sudan in the semi-finals. The Group B winners, USM Alger of Algeria, will face twice runners-up Al Hilal. Despite the heavy defeat, Moghreb Tetouan could still have gone through if Al Hilal had lost their match away to Smouha in Egypt.

While tension mounted ahead of the Group A finale, Group B was already settled before Friday’s final fixtures, where leaders USM Alger of Algeria lost their first match of the group campaign. 

USM’s hopes of creating an African Champions League group points record were dashed after a 1-0 loss at Al-Merrikh of Sudan.

The Group B winners entered the game in Omdurman needing one point to overtake the 15-point record created and matched by Esperance of Tunisia.

USM will be away to the Group A runners-up. Merrikh will be at home to the Group A winners in the semi-final first legs later this month.

Defending champions Entente Setif ended a disappointing campaign by drawing 2-2 at home against another Algerian club, Mouloudia El-Eulma. Setif managed just one victory in six matches to finish with five points - 10 less than USM and eight fewer than Merrikh.