CAF Champions League Draw: The battle lines have been drawn

With the second round matches scheduled for as early as 6-8 May 2018, the match-ups for the final 16 teams have been decided in a draw conducted in Cairo, Egypt.

The stand out fixture has to be between the 2017 and 2016 Champions. Wydad Casablanca(Morocco) and Mamelodi Sundowns(South Africa) are in Group C together with AS Port of Togo and Horoya of Guinea. Masandawana will be keen to settle a score with Wydad after the former was knocked out last year on penalties with the latter eventually claiming the prize. With several debutants like Mbabane Swallows (Swaziland), AS Port of Togo and seasoned competitors such as the eight-time champions, Al Ahly (Egypt) in the mix for the title hunt - the final stages of the tournament promises to be full of thrills and spills. In fact, reacting to the draw, Sundowns gaffer Pitso Mosimane highlighted how ready they are to take on any challenge but admitted that fresh boys like AS Port of Togo are closed books which will need to be studied.

““Horoya plays good football with great passing technique. They are a good team, tactical and have some good individual players. The team we don’t know much is AS Port (Togo), and we will have to conduct a research on them” ”

— - Pitso Mosimane

Here is the complete list of the groups....

2018 Champions League groups:

Group A: Al Ahly (Egypt), Township Rollers (Botswana), KCCA (Uganda), Esperance de Tunis (Tunisia)

Group B: TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Mouloudia Alger (Algeria), Difaa El Jadidi (Morocco), Entente Setif (Algeria)

Group C: AS Port of Togo (Togo), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco), Horoya (Guinea)

Group D: Zesco United (Zambia), Primeiro de Agosto (Angola), Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia), Mbabane Swallows (Swaziland)