FAR Rabat held Al Ahly to a tense goalless draw in Cairo to claim the final CAF Champions League quarter-final berth and complete the knockout line-up.

Drawing in Cairo lifted FAR to nine points, one more than rivals Young Africans of Tanzania, whose 3-0 victory over Algerian visitors JS Kabylie in Zanzibar City was in vain.

Ahly supporters in a 45,000 Cairo crowd vented their frustrations by flinging bottles toward the pitch as the dominant home team failed to convert territorial superiority into goals.

Angolan Laurindo ‘Depu’ Aurelio scored in each half for Young Africans before Congolese Chadrack Boka notched a third goal.

Record 12-time African champions Ahly topped Group B with 10 points, and will be among the four seeded teams for the quarter-finals draw on Tuesday.

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The others are defending champions and fellow Egyptian club Pyramids, surprising Stade Malien of Mali and Sudanese side Al Hilal.

Hilal reached the last eight of the premier African club competition despite playing home matches in Rwanda because of the civil war in Sudan.

The unseeded quartet are FAR and Renaissance Berkane from Morocco, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa and Esperance from Tunisia.

It ranks among the strongest last-eight fields in the 62-year competition with Ahly, Pyramids, FAR, Esperance and Sundowns have all lifted the trophy. Malien and Hilal have finished runners-up.

Berkane are Champions League debutants after winning the second-tier CAF Confederation Cup three times and finishing runners-up twice in the past seven seasons.

– AFP

Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images