Wydad Casablanca see off Atletico Luanda to qualify for ‘home’ CAF Champions League final in Morocco

Two-time African champions Wydad Casablanca played a 1-1 draw at the Stade Mohammed V on Friday night to back up their 3-1 first leg away win and secure a 4-2 aggregate victory over surprise packages Atletico Luanda

Wydad Casablanca were targeting a third African title and knew they just need to avoid losing by more than two goals to see off Atletico Luanda in the second leg of their semifinal fixture.

Coach Walid Regragui set up his team accordingly, playing a conservative 4-4-1-1 formation in a bid to stifle their Angolan visitors with only Guy Mbenza and Aymane El-Hassouni deployed in the Atletico half.

Much like the first leg, Wydad Casablanca were happy to concede possession to Atletico Luanda, seeing only 40% of the ball in the first half despite playing in front of their home crowd.

Atletico Luanda took the initiative and went ahead on the night courtesy of a 21st-minute goal from Gleison, assisted by Pedro Miguel.

The visitors needed to score three unreplied goals to qualify automatically but Amine Farhane made their task much harder when he levelled for Wydad Casablanca just seven minutes after Gleison’s opener.

Against a tactically astute and defensively solid Wydad Casablanca side, Atletico Luanda stood no chance of scoring another three goals to go through.

Wydad Casablanca are now just 90 minutes away from clinching their third African crown, having missed the opportunity during the 2018/19 season when they lost the final to Esperance of Tunisia in a controversial fashion.

Wydad Casablanca and Esperance had played a 1-1 draw at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, Morocco for the first leg of the then two-legged final.

The second leg at the Stade Olympique de Rades in Tunis was then abandoned and Esperance were declared champions much to the ire of Wydad Casablanca.

Since then, Wydad Casablanca reached the semi-final of the 2019/20 CAF Champions League but were eliminated by defending champions Al Ahly.