Goals either side of half-time from Raphael Veiga and Dudu put the Copa Libertadores winners firmly in command at the Al Nayhan Stadium, a short journey from the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium where the Blues will be in action tomorrow, and they survived a couple of scares to emerge comfortable 2-0 victors.

Abel Ferreira, the Palmeiras manager, utilised a 4-3-3 formation that could easily switch to a solid 4-5-1 out of possession. Al Ahly adopted a similar shape but lacked the inventiveness of their counterparts in the final third, something that ultimately decided this semi-final.

The Brazilians’ first goal arrived in the 39th minute when Dudu cleverly released Veiga with an outside-of-the-boot flick. The attacking midfielder, who opened the scoring in the Libertadores final in November, got sufficient power and accuracy on his strike for it to beat Aly Lofty in the Egyptians’ goal.

Dudu then doubled Palmeiras’ advantage four minutes after the break, much to the delight of the vociferous South American support clad in green and white. The winger burst forward from halfway and, with no Al Ahly challenge forthcoming, went it alone, driving a powerful shot into the top corner. Lofty will feel he could have done better.

Al Ahly, the CAF Champions League winners, sent on Hamdy Fathy and Mohamed Sherif, two of their players who were part of Egypt’s AFCON squad. Two more, including Amro Elsoulia, a starter on Sunday, had begun the game. Ah Ahly did improve and mustered a handful of half-chances with no reward as Palmeiras sat deeper to protect their lead.

With 20 minutes left, Sherif put the ball in the net after a horrendous keeping mistake from Palmeiras’ Weverton, but the automatic offside technology being trialled in this tournament spotted the striker was beyond the last defender when the initial, speculative long-range effort was struck.

Al Ahly were reduced to 10 men with as many minutes remaining, captain Ayman Ashraf dismissed for a straight red following a VAR consultation by the French referee Clement Turbin. Another member of Egypt’s AFCON squad, he will not be involved in Saturday’s third/fourth-place play-off at this stadium.

For the victor of our meeting with Al Hilal, Palmeiras await later that day. They survived a couple of late scares, including Al Ahly striking the crossbar, to preserve their clean sheet.