The AmaKhosi are in the pool stages of the competition for the first time and have high hopes of a deep run, but they have been drawn into a tough group that also includes another Egyptian side, Cairo giants Zamalek, and Zambian outfit ZESCO United.
Sunday’s fixture will be Chiefs’ first game in Egypt since a 4-1 defeat to Al Ahly in the 2002 CAF Super Cup, and it comes against the fourth Egyptian club they will have faced in continental competition.
Their 2021 CAF Champions League final against the same Ahly was played in neutral Casablanca and ended in a 3-0 defeat.
In six previous meetings with Egyptian clubs, Chiefs have managed a single win, along with two draws and three defeats. Away from home they have a draw and two defeats, so would make history with a win on Sunday.
Their first encounter came in a second-round Champions League tie with Zamalek in 1993, the first year South African teams entered African club competition after the end of Apartheid. Chiefs won 2-1 at home thanks to goals from Trevor Mtimkulu and Shane McGregor, but a 1-0 loss in Cairo meant Zamalek advanced on the away-goals rule.
That star-studded Chiefs side had switched off at a late free-kick in the first leg that was taken quickly and paid the price in a game they had largely dominated.
It would be another eight years before they met Egyptian opposition again, this time Ismaily in the 2001 CAF Cup Winners’ Cup, on their way to lifting the title that year. They drew 0-0 in Soweto in the first leg of their quarter-final, and a 1-1 draw in Egypt sent Chiefs through on the away-goals rule. Arthur Zwane, who would later coach the team, scored the all-important goal after 79 minutes.
Chiefs went on to defeat InterClube of Angola 2-1 on aggregate in the final, their only continental title to date. That success qualified them for the 2002 CAF Super Cup, but they were well beaten by Ahly 4-1 despite Cyril Nzama’s 19th-minute goal.
The AmaKhosi were due to meet Ismaily again in the fourth round of the Confederation Cup in 2005 after dropping into the competition when they were eliminated from the Champions League.
But they declined and withdrew from the tie, believing there was no merit in competing in Africa’s secondary continental club competition, and were suspended for the next two seasons as a result.
They did not face Egyptian opposition again until the 2021 Champions League final against Ahly, where a red card for Happy Mashiane just before halftime turned the contest in Ahly’s favour, and they swept to victory.
Chiefs reached this season’s Confederation Cup group stage after edging Angolan side Kabuscorp on penalties in the first qualifying round and defeating AS Simba of the Democratic Republic of Congo 3-1 on aggregate in the second.