The 2022-2023 TotalEnergies Champions League season wrapped up on Sunday, with Egyptian giants Al Ahly clinching a record-equaling 11th title with a 3-2 aggregate win over Morocco’s Wydad Athletic Club.
Ahly’s crowning marked the end of an incredible season, full of sensational matches, stunning twists and new revelations in terms of teams and players.
CAFOnline reviews some facts and statistics from this season.
1 – In his very first season at the helm of Al Ahly, Swiss technician Marcel Koller won the CAF Champions League. One is also the number of goals scored by Uganda’s Vipers, the least in the competition.
2 – CR Belouizdad finished with the best defense in the group stage with only two goals conceded in six matches. Raja Club Athletic (3) and Espérance de Tunis (4) were the other teams with the meanest defenses.
3 – Wydad Athletic lost its third final in the CAF Champions League. Three is also the number of trophies won by Al Ahly during the last four editions of the competition.
This is also the number of hattricks scored during the tournament. Ahly’s Mahmoud Kahraba (in the 4-0 victory over Cotonsport), Simba’s Clatous Chama, (in the 7-0 home win over Horoya) and Zamalek’s Nasser Mansi (in the 4-3 victory against Al Merreikh) all had a share of the match ball courtesy of their three-goal-perfomances.
5 – This is the biggest number of wins in the group stages of the competition, obtained by Raja Club Athletic. They collected the highest number of points in the group stages (16). They were the only side, alongside Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, not to lose a match in the group rounds.
6 – This is the number of defeats Cameroon’s Cotonsport suffered in the group stage, the highest in the tournament. They were the only ones to lose all their group stage matches.
Six is also the number of goals scored by Mahmoud Kahraba and Peter Shalulile, the two joint top scorers in the competition.
7- This is the highest number of goals scored in a single match during the group stage. Tanzania’s Simba beat Horoya 7-0, Sundowns beat champions Ahly 5-2, while Zamalek beat El Merrikh 4-3.
8- This is the number of red cards dished out during the tournament.
11- This is the number of away wins recorded from the group stage to the final. Eight of them were achieved in the group stage. Raja was the only team to win more than once away from home in the group stage, with a 3-0 win away to Simba on matchday two and a 3-1 victory over Horoya on matchday four.
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16 – This is also the number of Champions League finals played by Al Ahly with a record of 11 wins and five losses.
17 – This is the number of Champions League trophies now won by Egyptian clubs. In addition to Ahly’s 11, arch rivals Zamalek have won the tournament five times while Ismaily SC won their only trophy in 1969.
23 – Al Ahly were the best attack in the competition with 23 goals scored in 12 matches. Mamelodi Sundowns was the second-best attack with 18 goals, one more than Raja.
24 – Matchday four of the group stage was the most prolific of the tournament, with 24 goals recorded. Matchday six had 23 goals. Matchday one and two recorded the least number of goals, with 13 each.
136 – This is the number of goals scored from the group stage to the final of the Champions League in 62 matches, an average of 2.19 goals per match.