Battle begins in Champions League

Champions Hearts of Oak are already out

Group 1:
TP Mazembe (RDC), Julius Berger (NGR), Sundowns (SA), Esperance (TUN).

Group 2:
CR Belouizdad (ALG), Asec (CIV), Petro Atletico (ANG), Al Ahly (EGY).

Africa's eight best clubs on Saturday commence the fight for the Champions League trophy and $1 million in prize money.

But they do not include two of the biggest names in the game; reigning champions Accra Hearts of Oak and three-times winners Raja Casablanca are already out of the running.

Hearts have been a huge disappointment, being knocked out by Etoile of Congo in the first round of qualifying.

Raja were pipped to the last eight by TP Mazembe, losing 3-2 on aggregate.

That makes this year's competition potentially the most open for years.

Four-way tussle

Julius Berger are trying to become the first Nigerian team to win

Four clubs stand out as the most likely to make it into the semi-finals.

Egypt's El Ahly won the competition twice in the eighties and were recently voted African club of the century.

They look set to contest the top place in Group 2 with Asec of Ivory Coast, West Africa's most consistent club and winners in 1998.

Esperance and Sundowns are the hot favourites to make it through Group 1 and renew the intense rivalry that developed last year.

The Tunisians, who have been losing finalists for the past two years, stopped Sundowns from getting into the final on goal difference.

The North Africans are best remembered for the disgraceful behaviour of their goalkeeper Chokri El Ouaer in the final against Hearts.

He cut himself in an attempt to fool the referee into thinking he had been hit by a missile thrown by the Ghanaian crowd.

Egyptians on top

On present form Al Ahly appear to have the edge.

El Ouaer turned last year's final into a farce

Their confidence is sky-high after beating Real Madrid 1-0 in a friendly in Cairo on Saturday.

The group stage of home-and-away legs is due to be completed by the end of October, with the semi-finals in November and the final contested over two weekends in December.

This is the first year that semi-finals have been introduced - previously the winner of each group has gone straight into the final.

The prize money of $1million for the winners and $700,000 for the runners-up would be considered pocket-money by Europe's top clubs.

But in Africa it represents a huge sum that most sides only dream of.

Fixtures:
Sat:
Sundowns v Esperance, Pretoria
TP Mazembe v Julius Berger, Kinshasa

Sun:
Belouizdad v Asec, Algiers
Petro Atletico v Al Ahly, Luanda