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The 2015 CAF Champions League (officially the 2015 Orange CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 51st edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 19th edition under the current CAF Champions League format. The winner qualified for the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup, and earned the right to play in the 2016 CAF Super Cup.[1]
| 2015 Orange CAF Champions League | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Dates | 13 February – 8 November 2015 |
| Teams | 57 (from 44 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  TP Mazembe (5th title) |
| Runners-up |  USM Alger |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 126 |
| Goals scored | 268 (2.13 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Bakri Al-Madina Mbwana Samatta(7 goals each) |
← 2014 2016 → | |
TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo won the competition for the fifth time in their history after a 4–1 aggregate victory over USM Alger of Algeria in the final.[2] ES Sétif were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.
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All 56 CAF member associations may enter the CAF Champions League, with the 12 highest ranked associations according to their CAF 5-year ranking eligible to enter two teams in the competition. The title holders can also enter.[1] As a result, theoretically a maximum of 69 teams could enter the tournament – although this level has never been reached.
For the 2015 CAF Champions League, the CAF uses the 2009–2013 CAF 5-year ranking, which calculates points for each entrant association based on their clubs’ performance over those 5 years in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. The criteria for points are the following:[3]
| CAF Champions League | CAF Confederation Cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Winner | 5 points | 4 points |
| Runner-up | 4 points | 3 points |
| Losing semi-finalists | 3 points | 2 points |
| 3rd place in groups | 2 points | 1 point |
| 4th place in groups | 1 point | 1 point |
The points are multiplied by a coefficient according to the year as follows:
- 2013 – 5
- 2012 – 4
- 2011 – 3
- 2010 – 2
- 2009 – 1
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The following 57 teams from 44 associations entered the competition.
Teams in bold received a bye to the first round. The other teams entered the preliminary round.
Associations are shown according to their 2009–2013 CAF 5-year ranking – those with a ranking score have their rank and score indicated.[4]
- Notes
- ^ Algeria (ALG): JS Kabylie, the 2013–14 Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 runner-up, was suspended by the CAF for two years due to the death of Albert Ebossé during their league home match against USM Alger.[5][6] On 11 February 2015, the CAS overturned the suspension.[7] However, their replacement MC El Eulma continued to represent Algeria in the 2015 CAF Champions League.
- ^ Gambia (GAM): Gambia were originally not able to enter a team after the association was suspended from all CAF competitions for two years for deliberately fielding overage players in the 2015 African U-20 Championship qualification match against Liberia,[8][9][10] but the ban was lifted by the CAF following new election of the Gambia Football Association.[11]
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The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws are held at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt).[12]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | 22 December 2014[13] | 13–15 February 2015 | 27 February–1 March 2015 |
| First round | 13–15 March 2015 | 3–5 April 2015 | ||
| Second round | 17–19 April 2015 | 1–3 May 2015 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 5 May 2015[14] | 26–28 June 2015 | |
| Matchday 2 | 10–12 July 2015 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 24–26 July 2015 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 7–9 August 2015 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 21–23 August 2015 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 11–13 September 2015 | |||
| Knockout stage | Semi-finals | 25–27 September 2015 | 2–4 October 2015 | |
| Final | 30 October–1 November 2015 | 6–8 November 2015 | ||
The draw for the preliminary, first and second qualifying rounds was held on 22 December 2014.[15]
Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).[1]
Preliminary round
- Notes
First round
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ZESCO United  |
2–2 (4–5 p) |  AS Kaloum |
1–1 | 1–1 |
| USM Alger |
6–2 |  AS Pikine |
5–1 | 1–1 |
| Al-Hilal |
5–1 |  Big Bullets |
4–0 | 1–1 |
Coton Sport  |
0–2 | SM Sanga Balende |
0–0 | 0–2 |
| Cosmos de Bafia |
1–4 |  Espérance de Tunis |
0–1 | 1–3 |
| Al-Merrikh |
3–2 |  Kabuscorp |
2–0 | 1–2 |
AC Semassi  |
0–6 | CS Sfaxien |
0–5 | 0–1 |
| MC El Eulma |
2–1 |  Asante Kotoko |
0–0 | 2–1 |
Enyimba  |
1–2 |  Smouha |
1–0 | 0–2 |
Gor Mahia  |
0–2 |  AC Léopards |
0–1 | 0–1 |
APR  |
0–4 | Al-Ahly |
0–2 | 0–2 |
Moghreb Tétouan  |
5–2 | Kano Pillars |
4–0 | 1–2 |
Real Banjul  |
1–3 | ES Sétif |
1–1 | 0–2 |
Kaizer Chiefs  |
0–3 | Raja Casablanca |
0–1 | 0–2 |
| Mamelodi Sundowns |
2–3 | TP Mazembe |
1–0 | 1–3 |
AS Mangasport  |
2–5 |  Stade Malien |
1–3 | 1–2 |
Second round
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USM Alger |
3–2 | AS Kaloum |
2–1 | 1–1 |
| SM Sanga Balende |
0–2 | Al-Hilal |
0–1 | 0–1 |
| Al-Merrikh |
2–2 (a) | Espérance de Tunis |
1–0 | 1–2 |
| MC El Eulma |
1–1 (7–6 p) | CS Sfaxien |
1–0 | 0–1 |
| AC Léopards |
1–2 | Smouha |
1–0 | 0–2 |
| Moghreb Tétouan |
1–1 (4–3 p) | Al-Ahly |
1–0 | 0–1 |
| Raja Casablanca |
4–4 (1–4 p) | ES Sétif |
2–2 | 2–2 |
| Stade Malien |
3–4 | TP Mazembe |
2–2 | 1–2 |
The losers of the second round entered the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup play-off round.
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The draw for the group stage was held on 5 May 2015, 11:00 UTC+2, at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[17][18] The eight winners of the second round were drawn into two groups of four. Each group contained one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2, and two teams from Pot 3.[19] The seeding of each team was determined by their ranking points calculated based on performances in continental club championships for the period 2010–2014.
The following eight teams were entered into the draw:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.
| Tiebreakers |
|---|
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[1]
|
Group A
Source: CAF
Group B
Source: CAF
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Knockout ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).[1]
Bracket
| Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Al-Hilal
| 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||
| 4 | USM Alger
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |||||||||
| USM Alger
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| TP Mazembe
| 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Al-Merrikh
| 2 | 0 | 2 | |||||||||
| 2 | TP Mazembe
| 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||
Semi-finals
In the semi-finals, the group A winners played the group B runners-up, and the group B winners played the group A runners-up, with the group winners hosting the second leg.
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al-Merrikh |
2–4 | TP Mazembe |
2–1 | 0–3 |
| Al-Hilal |
1–2 | USM Alger |
1–2 | 0–0 |
Final
In the final, the order of legs was determined by a draw, held after the group stage draw.
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| Rank | Player | Team | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bakri Al-Madina |
Al-Merrikh |
7 |
| Mbwana Samatta |
TP Mazembe | ||
| 3 | Mouhcine Iajour |
Moghreb Tétouan |
6 |
 Roger Assalé |
TP Mazembe | ||
| 5 | Christian Osaguona |
Raja Casablanca |
5 |
| 6 | Youcef Belaïli |
USM Alger |
4 |
| Rainford Kalaba |
TP Mazembe | ||
| Justine Zulu |
ZESCO United | ||
| 9 | Kaddour Beldjilali |
USM Alger |
3 |
| Mohamed Rabie Meftah |
USM Alger | ||
| Mohamed Seguer |
USM Alger | ||
| Kabamba Mukundi |
SM Sanga Balende | ||
| Hermann Kouao |
Smouha | ||
| Kabongo Kassongo |
Kaloum Star | ||
| Adil Karrouchy |
Raja Casablanca | ||
| Mohammed Gambo |
Kano Pillars | ||
| Mudather Careca |
Al-Hilal | ||
| Nizar Hamid |
Al-Hilal | ||
 Boubacar Kébé |
Al-Hilal | ||
| Ahmed Abdalla |
Al-Merrikh | ||
| Yannick N'Djeng |
Espérance de Tunis |
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