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African champions Pyramids face star-studded Al Ahli for FIFA Challenger Cup berth

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Pyramids FC, kings of Africa after lifting last season’s TotalEnergies CAF Champions League, step onto Asian soil on Tuesday night to face Saudi heavyweights Al Ahli for a place in December’s Challenger Cup. .

The one-off FIFA African-Asian-Pacific Cup tie will be played at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, with kick-off at 21:00 in both Jeddah and Cairo.

It is the first-ever meeting between the clubs and a rare chance for an Egyptian side other than Al Ahly to fly Africa’s flag at a FIFA club competition.

 

The Cairo club arrive in good rhythm. Krunoslav Jurcic’s team swept aside Auckland City 3–0 in the play-off and then kept domestic momentum with a 1–0 league win over ZED.

The core of that side has been settled for weeks and Jurcic named a 28-man travelling group, suggesting minimal disruption to the XI that beat the Oceania champions.

Al Ahli, unbeaten in three in the Saudi Pro League after a breathless 3–3 draw with Al Hilal, come in with pedigree and star power.

Matthias Jaissle’s men lifted the Saudi Super Cup on penalties against Al Nassr and opened their AFC Champions League Elite campaign with victory over Nasaf.

Summer recruits Valentin Atangana, Zakaria Hawsawi, Enzo Millot and Matheus Goncalves deepen a squad that already boasts Edouard Mendy, Franck Kessié, Riyad Mahrez, Merih Demiral and Roger Ibañez. Fitness-watch centres on Brazilian winger Galeno, who has trained after missing the last two fixtures.

 

Pyramids are only the fourth different Egyptian club ever to win the continent’s elite title and just the second from Egypt—after Al Ahly—to enter a FIFA club competition.

CEO Mahmoud Eid underlined the scale of the moment: “This is an enormous opportunity for Pyramids – really, a historic chance to feature in a tournament of this calibre and we want to go as far as we can."

Al Ahli, meanwhile, are debutants on the FIFA stage but stormed to last season’s Asian crown with 12 wins and one draw in 13 matches.

The venue is familiar: they sealed that title in this very stadium in front of nearly 60,000 fans.

With a Challenger Cup berth at stake, expect high tempo, star turns—and a contest that will be watched closely across Africa.