Corinthians forward Paolo Guerrero opened the scoring in the Club World Cup semi-final against Egyptian side Al-Ahly with a powerful header.
(CNN) -- South American champions Corinthians progressed to the final of the FIFA Club World Cup on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over Egyptian side Al-Ahly in Toyota, Japan.
The defeat ended Al-Ahly's incredible run which had seen the Cairo team win the African Champions League despite domestic competition in Egypt being suspended following the death of more than 70 fans in February's Port Said stadium tragedy.
The only goal of the game arrived on 29 minutes when Peru's Jose Paolo Guerrero found the back of the net with a header following Douglas' sublime outside-of-the-boot cross.
The 2011-12 Egyptian revolution thrust an unlikely group of young people into the country's political conscience: organized groups of soccer fans called "ultras."
Egypt's soccer revolutionaries
Al-Masry fans chase Al-Ahly players during riots that erupted after the football match.
Scores dead in Egypt soccer riot
The win means the Sao Paulo team will play European Champions Chelsea of England or Mexico's CONCACAF Champions League winners Monterrey in Sunday's Yokohama final.
Read: Deadly Egyptian riots go beyond football
Corinthians, winners of the Copa Libertadores for the first time in their history earlier this year, were backed by thousands of passionate fans who had made the trip from Brazil.
Al-Ahly rarely threatened, with the club now having to make do with a place in Sunday's third-place playoff. The seven-time African champions finished third in this competition in 2006.
Meanwhile Corinthians hoards of fans will be hoping the club can repeat their 2000 success, when a team inspired by Edilson lifted the trophy on home soil after a penalty shootout win over Brazilian rivals Vasco da Gama -- a team that included the striking talents of Edmundo and Romario.
Earlier in the day Japan's Sanfrecce Hiroshima -- beaten by Al-Ahly in the quarterfinals -- secured fifth place in the competition with a 3-2 win over Ulsan Hyundai of South Korea.
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Peru's Guerrero spent six years with German team Hamburg before joining Brazilian club Corinthians earlier this year.
Back in the Eygptian capital Cairo, Al-Ahly fans gathered to watch the semifinal. Al-Ahly qualified for the Club World Cup after winning the African Champions League despite domestic competition in Egypt being suspended following the death of more than 70 fans in February's Port Said stadium tragedy.
Groups of well organized soccer fans, numbering several thousand, came to prominence during the Battle of the Camels in Tahrir Square. Graffiti eulogizing the ultras covered most of the nearby walls.
Emboldened by their success, groups of ultras would attend and lead many of the post-Mubarak protests in Cairo against the military regime.
The most prominent group was the Ahlawy, the ultras of Al Ahly, Egypt's biggest and most successful club.
The Ahlawy was formed in 2007 as a way of showing better organized support for the team. But it soon became much more.
Such were their numbers that security was tight. Members would be arrested and revolutionary, anti-regime chants could be heard from the stands.
Post Mubarak in 2011, soccer returned to Egypt after a brief suspension of the league. In the security vacuum violence grew. In February this year, 74 fans of Al Ahly, many of them Ahlawy members, died in Port Said after they were attacked by rival fans in the stands.
The ultra groups claim that the deaths weren't the result of thuggery, as claimed by the authorities, but planned by the military as pay-back for their role in the revolution. The trial of over 70 people allegedly involved is ongoing.
Marches were held across Egypt to honor the dead. Here a member of the Ahlawy leads marchers in song in the northern city of Alexandria. The soccer league was canceled. In their aim to achieve justice for the dead, the Ahlawy has launched a successful direct action campaign against the restart of the soccer league until the trial of those accused of the Port Said tragedy is completed.
The lack of competitive soccer is just one of the many problems that has faced Egyptian national team coach Bob Bradley. The former coach of the U.S. men's team has been charged with taking Egypt to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.
His first competitive match was a World Cup qualifier earlier this year. Fears of violence were so high, the match was played without fans in a remote military stadium outside Alexandria.
Despite the revolution and despite the team having played little or no football, Egypt won their first two World Cup qualifying matches.
Even more incredible has been the performance of Al Ahly in the African Champions League. Despite having no league, and having to play all their home games behind closed doors, the team has reached the two -leg final and is hoping for a seventh title overall.
Egyptian football fans rush on to the field during the clashes.
Flares are thrown in the stadium as tension builds throughout the game.
An Egyptian policeman intervenes as people try to separate rival football fans.
Egyptians gather outside the train station in Cairo as they wait for the arrival of people wounded at the match in Port Said.
Egyptian soldiers help a wounded football Al-Ahly fan after he arrived in Cairo on a military plane.
An Al-Masry fan invades the pitch during the match in Port Said.
Egyptians drive past Port Said Stadium, home of Al-Masry, on February 2, 2012.
A wounded Al-Masry fan is escorted by a medic and a friend following the clashes.
Egyptian medics wheel the body of a victim into a morgue in Cairo on February 2, 2012.
Egyptian women mourn victims of the riot at a morgue in Cairo on February 2.
Egyptian investigators inspect damage at the football stadium in Port Said on Thursday.
Family members and mourners gather at Cairo's railway station as they receive the bodies of football fans killed during clashes between rival fans in Port Said.
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