Nairobi — South African international Percy Muzi Tau struck a brace as holders Al Ahly thrashed record Kenyan champions Gor Mahia 3-0 at the Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday evening to put one foot into the group stages of the CAF Champions League.
The Red Devils scored two goals in two minutes, Tau scoring just after centreback Rami Rabia had given them the lead.The South African then completed the job with quarter of an hour left, leaving the Kenyan champions with a mountain to climb in the second leg in Cairo next weekend.
Within quarter of an hour, the visitors were 2-0 up. Rabia broke the deadlock tapping into ther roof of the net after keeper Kevin Omondi had spilled Hussein El Shahaat's cross from the left.
Immediately after the restart, Ahly doubled their lead when Tau interceoted a short backpass before beating the keeper one on one.
Ahly almost made it 3-0 minutes later but Omondi pulled a point blank double save to deny Wessam Abou Ali.
Gor landed their first effort on target after 23 minutes when Enoch Morrison rifled a shot from inside the box after a corner was headed into his path, but Ahly keeper Mohamed Elshenawy pulled a brilliant save to keep the score at 2-0.
Needing to score to stay alive, Gor had to ditch their erstwhile defensive approach which had seen them employ defender Alphonce Omija as a defensive midfielder, to play with a low block against the potent attack posed by Ahly.
Coach Leo Neiva pulled out Philemon Otieno and Kennedy Onyango, bringing in Alpha Onyango and Paul Ochuoga. The latter went on the right replacing skipper Philemon while Omija dropped back to centre half, Alpha coming into midfield.
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The change in structure helped Gor offensively. They had a close chance five minutes to the break when a good passage of play saw Austin Odhiambo put Boniface Omondi through, but the latter's shot went inches over the bar.
In the second half, Ahly were comfortable sitting back and let Gor have the ball, but come nowhere near their box. K'Ogalo tried to unlock the defensive line, but were often indecisive in the final third.
Tau drove the final nail in their coffin in the 75th minute when he landed on a rebound after Omondi had made a save, thumping the ball home.
Gor tried to switch formations and personnel, but couldn't grab at least a single goal at home. They thought they had one late on, but Shariff Musa's tap in after Elshanawy had punched Samuel Kapen's shot was ruled out for offside.
