Egyptian side, Zamalek will face South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League final after avoiding what would have been an embarrassing defeat to Wydad Casablanca in the second leg of their semi-final.
Having won the first leg 4-0 in Cairo, many thought they would have it easy in Morocco but it was not to be as they suffered a 5-2 defeat meaning, they progressed 6-5 on aggregate.
It was tough on Wydad, who almost produced one of the greatest comebacks in African Champions League history.
Liberian striker William Jebor and Moroccan forward Ismail El Haddad got the home side off to a perfect start and made it 2-0 before 20 minutes were played, giving the Casablanca crowd hope that a result could be achieved.
But in the 35th minute Egyptian national Bassem Morsi scored an away-goal for Zamalek, which meant that Wydad would have had to score three more goals to win.
Morsi’s goal could easily have knocked the stuffing out of the Moroccan side, but it didn’t. Wydad rallied again and Jebor got his second goal – both of his strikes coming from El Haddad assists – and made it 3-1 just before half-time to renew some hope.
In the second half Wydad continued to believe they could do it. Congolese forward Fabrice Ondama took centre stage and pulled another goal back for Wydad in the 56th minute to make it 4-1.
The drama continued in the 64th minute when Wydad were awarded a penalty, which Ondama converted to make it 5-1 on the night and 5-5 on aggregate.
However, in the 81st minute, as Wydad poured forward trying to pull an unbelievable result out of the hat, Nigerian striker Stanley Ohawuchi struck again for Zamalek to make it 6-5 to the Egyptians – meaning Wydad would have needed another two goals to win.
That, despite Wydad’s valiant efforts, didn’t happen, which means that Mamelodi Sundowns will face Zamalek in the 2016 CAF Champions League final on the weekends of 14 and 21 October next month.