Stand almost taken by centre of allied capital (7)
I believe the answer is:
tripoli
'capital' is the definition.
(capital of Libya)
'stand almost taken by centre of allied' is the wordplay.
'stand almost' becomes 'tripo' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'taken by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'centre of' indicates the central letters.
The middle letters of 'allied' are 'li'.
'tripo'+'li'='TRIPOLI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tripoli that I've seen before include "Libyan capital" , "City in Libya - city in Lebanon" , "powdery deposit" , "Polish" , "Libya's capital" .)