Champions Leagues reach decisive final stages: This week in Middle East football

While the European Champions League is still in its group stage, in Africa and Asia, the continental competitions are reaching boiling point with the finals' first legs already creating headlines.

On Friday night, Egyptian champions Al-Ahly Cairo hosted Tunisia's Esperance de Tunis at a packed Borg Al-Arab stadium in Alexandria. The match was the first in African football to be using the VAR system, which helps the officials make the most accurate calls based on video recordings of incidents.

Al-Ahly arrived as clear favourites and benefited from a seemingly weak performance by Algerian referee Mehdi Abid Charef.

The Egyptians were awarded a brace of controversial penalties, despite the VAR evidence, with the referee directly responsible for two of the hosts' goals.

Walid Soliman scored the first penalty after a light touch in the box between striker Walid Azaro and Tunisian goalie Ben Cherifia was deemed by Abid Charef to be a foul.

In the second half, Al-Ahly's quality prevailed and the Egyptians went up 2-0, after poor defensive play by Esperance's defence and a lethal finish from Air Solaya.

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But just when it looked like Al-Ahly was sliding easily towards victory, the Tunisians got one back thanks to Yousef Belalli the Algerian, who scored a deserved penalty. 

Esperance continued to pressure Al-Ahly, looking to grab an equaliser - but then, in the 73rd minute came another bizarre decision from Abid Charef, who gave Al-Ahly another penalty, despite another exaggerated fall in the box by Walid Azaro. The Tunisians were furious with the referee.

Walid Soliman did not blink and converted the penalty to a goal and a 3-1 lead, which serves Al-Ahly well before the second leg in Radés next Friday.

Referee Mehdi Abid Charef was under huge pressure in this match, also due to the ever-present tension between Algerians and Egyptians in football, since the famous incidents in the 2010 World Cup qualifications that almost brought a diplomatic crisis upon the two countries.

With a horrific debut of VAR in African football, fans and footballers on the continent will be afraid such faults will only contribute to stressful games. But next time it might work better. That said, the African Confederation might think again before fielding an Algerian referee in another high-profile match in Egypt. 

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