South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns will meet FAR Rabat of Morocco in the two-legged CAF Champions League final after taking contrasting paths on Saturday to the title decider.
Colombian Brayan Leon scored on 35 minutes to give Mamelodi Sundowns a 1-0 semi-final second-leg victory over Esperance of Tunisia.
The Pretoria club qualified 2-0 on aggregate.
Leon also scored the only goal of the first leg last weekend, raising his tally to 10 in domestic and African competitions since joining the club three months ago.
Survived late pressure
FAR Rabat lost 1-0 away to Renaissance Berkane in an all-Moroccan duel with Yassine Labhiri converting a 57th-minute penalty. The spot kick was confirmed only after a six-minute VAR review.
The Rabat club then survived late pressure to qualify 2-1 on aggregate for a second final appearance in the premier African club competition.
Both finalists have conquered Africa once.
FAR Rabat defeated Bilima of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1985 and Sundowns overcame Zamalek of Egypt in 2016.
The first leg of the final will be staged in Pretoria on Friday, May 15 and the return match is in Rabat on Sunday, May 24.
Kick-off times for both matches will be confirmed in due course.
At stake will be a record $6 million (R97.9 million) first prize.
Portuguese coaches
Portuguese coaches will come face to face in the final. Miguel Cardoso is in charge of Mamelodi Sundowns and Alexandre Santos guides FAR Rabat.
Cardoso will be appearing in a third consecutive CAF Champions League final having failed with Esperance in 2024 and Mamelodi Sundowns last season.
Another Portuguese holds the record for consecutive finals appearances. Manuel Jose guided Al Ahly of Egypt in four from 2005, three of which the Cairo club won.
Reacted quickest
In Pretoria, Esperance goalkeeper Bechir Ben Said made a superb one-hand parry to foil Leon midway through the opening half.
When Ben Said later kicked Leon when trying to clear a throw from Ibrahima Keita, the Somali referee pointed to the penalty spot.
Ben Said parried the poorly struck spot kick from Leon, but the South American reacted quickest to push the rebound into the net on 35 minutes.
Esperance almost levelled as half-time approached when a cross struck the body of French striker Florian Danho and came back off the crossbar.
The second half finally came alive after 75 minutes when Ben Said prevented long-range attempts by Chilean Marcelo Allende and Jayden Adams putting Sundowns further ahead.
Four-time African champions Esperance introduced teenage attackers Aboubacar Diakite from Mali and Jack Diarra from Burkina Faso, but they failed to trouble Sundowns’ defence.
In Berkane, Labhiri remained calm throughout the lengthy delay ahead of the penalty after Berkane striker Paul Bassene had his shirt pulled by Anas Bach.
Eventually, he strode slowly forward and expertly placed the ball over FAR goalkeeper Ahmed Tagnaouti to halve the aggregate deficit.
Having scored his first goal of the CAF Champions League campaign, Labhiri almost notched a second soon after with his close-range shot spectacularly parried by Tagnaouti.
Berkane appealed for another penalty in the closing minutes, but big screen replays showed To Carneiro had fairly challenged Youssef Mehri.
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