Kaizer Chiefs are one of eight teams who have qualified for the CAF Champions League quarter-finals and here is who Amakhosi could face in the next round.
The draw for the quarter-finals will take place at 2pm in Cairo on Friday and Gavin Hunt’s side as well as all the other qualified teams will find out their fate.
Chiefs qualified from second spot in group C after drawing 2-2 with Horoya, finishing level on nine points with the Guinean side but beating them on away goals in the head-to-head record.
Hence, Chiefs can now be draw against any of the winners of the other three groups, including Mamelodi Sundowns, as teams from the same group cannot face each other, while teams from the same association could be matched up.
In addition, Chiefs could also face Group A winners Simba SC or Group D winners Esperance de Tunis. The latter are one of the heavyweights left in the competition, having won the Champions League four times, including in 2018 and 2019.
Tanzanian champions Simba, meanwhile, have also reached the knockout stages of the CAF Champions League for a first time – similar to Chiefs, after topping Group A ahead of Pitso Mosimane’s Al Ahly.
Downs on the other hand can only face teams that finished as runners-up, namely Chiefs, Algerian club MC Alger or Mosimane’s Al Ahly.
CAF explained the draw procedures as follows:
Pot 1 will contain all 2nd place teams (runners-up) of their groups:
- Al Ahly SC
- CR Belouizdad
- Kaizer Chiefs FC
- MC Alger
Pot 2 will contain 3 balls of the 1st place team of Group A: (Simba SC x 3 balls)
Pot 3 will contain 3 balls of the 1st place team of Group B: (Mamelodi Sundowns x 3 balls)
Pot 4 will contain 3 balls of the 1st place team of Group C: (Waydad AC x 3 balls)
Pot 5 will contain 3 balls of the 1st place team of Group D: (Esperance du Tunis x 3 balls)
Pot 6 will be an empty pot.
Step 1: Pick a ball from the runners-up pot (Pot 1) and show the team drawn.
Step 2: Pick 1 ball from the other pots (pots 2,3,4&5) except the pot that has the team that played in the same group of the runner-up team drawn in step 1 (to avoid having two teams from the same group playing each other).
- Example: if we pick the runner-up (2nd of group A), we take one ball from pot 3, one from pot 4 and one from pot 5 and we eliminate pot 2 (containing the balls of 1st of Group A).
Step 3: The picked balls in step 2 are put in the empty pot (Pot 6).
Step 4: Mix the three balls of Pot 6 before picking one ball to determine the team who will face the runner up drawn in step 1 for the Quarterfinal 1.
Step 5: The same process will be repeated three more times in order to determine the remaining fixtures (Quarterfinal 2, Quarterfinal 3 & Quarterfinal 4) while eliminating the pot of the ball drawn in step 4.
According to the regulations: The runners-up shall play the first leg matches of the quarterfinals at home.
The quarter-finals first legs will take place on 14/15 May, with the second legs scheduled for 21/22 May.
Meanwhile, the draw for the semi-finals of the tournament will also take place today, with teams from the same association and group being allowed to be drawn against each other.
