Four teams are battling to reach the final of the African Champions League

An unlikely quartet of clubs will compete Sunday in Nigeria and Sudan for African Champions League final places.

Heartland host Kano Pillars at Owerri in an all-Nigeria affair while in Sudan Al Hilal face TP Mazembe of the DR Congo in Omdurman.

Few people could have predicted the last four when the competition kicked off last January defending champions Al Ahly of Egypt favourites to win a seventh title.

Clubs from North Africa have dominated in recent years with a team from the region having reached the final for the last eight years, winning six of those finals.

But this year only 2007 winners Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia qualified for the group stages and they failed to get to the last four winning just two games in their group.

Semi-finalists Kano Pillars caused the biggest upset of this year's Champions League with held star-studded Ahly to two draws to eliminate the champions on the away-goals rule.

A Kano outfit coached by Slovenian Ivo Sajh have won only four of 12 African outings, but suffered a lost just once and are marginal favourites to overcome Heartland, who were runners-up in 1988 when called Iwuanyanwu Nationale.

"We have to play a lot better away from home," stressed Sajh.

I know Pillars will give us a tough time but we are used to handling such situations Heartland coach Kelechi Emetole

"My players are positive characters who believe they will not only eliminate Heartland, but win the competition."

Heartland coach Kelechi Emetole would rather have met Kano in the final.

"My sole regret is that we are meeting our sister club in the semi-finals instead of the final," he said.

"I know Pillars will give us a tough time but we are used to handling such situations."

Victor Namo, joint leading Champions League scorer with seven goals, is the Kano dangerman while Heartland boast five players who have struck the net three times, including stand-in captain Ike ThankGod.

Mazembe became the first club to successfully defend the title in 1968 but the closest they have come to conquering Africa since then was seven years ago when falling to Zamalek of Egypt in the semi-finals.

The Congolese boast another seven-goal marksman in Dioko Kaluyituka and skipper Mabi Mputu has six to his credit for a club formed 70 years ago by Benedictine monks in the southern city of Lubumbashi.

After scraping into the group stage with an away-goal victory over Primeiro Agosto of Angola, Hilal improved and a 100 percent home record saw them safely through to the semi-finals for the second time in three years.

Experienced African campaigner Mohamed al-Tahir has scored four goals for a side coached by Brazilian Paulo Campos and attempting to become the first Sudanese winners of the Champions League.

The second-leg matches are scheduled for mid-October with the aggregate winners advancing to a two-leg final offering a US$1.5 million first prize.

The eventual winners will also qualify fir the Fifa Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

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