Manuel Jose ended his career as Al Ahly coach disastrously when the Egyptian giants were dumped out of the African Confederation Cup by Santos in Angola a few hours ago.
Ahly, winners of the African Champions League a record six times, took a 3-0 lead into the return match and even the absence of star midfielder Mohamed Aboutraika was not expected to prevent them reaching the group phase.
But a Santos team competing in Africa for the first time this year had other ideas and triumphed 3-0 in Luanda to level the aggregate score before winning the fourth-round tie 6-5 on penalties.
It was a sad exit for Jose, who stays in Luanda to take over a struggling Angolan national team from June 1 with the task of building a team capable of using home advantage to win the 2010 African Nations Cup.
Success for Santos completed a wonderful weekend for the oil-rich southern Africa nation in the second-tier African club competition, as Primeiro Agosto eliminated holders CS Sfaxien in Tunisia on Saturday, also after a shoot-out.
Primeiro lost 2-0 to Sfaxien only to convert all their post-match penalties and win the shootout 5-4, while Stade Malien of Mali outplayed Al-Ittihad Khemisset of Morocco 3-1 in Bamako to advance 4-2 on aggregate.
Nigerian side Bayelsa United are also through to the group stage after defeating Kampala City Council of Uganda 4-0.
Bayelsa go through 5-3 on aggregate.
And that's the wrap.
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