Egypt's Ahli take on Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia in the first leg of the African Champions League final In the Olympic Stadium of Sousse in Tunisia Ahli of Egypt and Tunisia's Etoile du Sahel will battle it out on Saturday in the first leg of the African Champions League final. Ahli are the favourite to conquer Africa again after lifting the trophy in 1982, 1987 and 2001. Etoile will be appearing in a second consecutive decider having lost on penalties to Enyimba of Nigeria in last year's edition of the championship. Etoile booked their place in the final with a 1-0 victory over Raja Casablanca of Morocco in a North Africa semi-final settled by a Kais Zouaghi goal direct from a free kick midway through the second half. The Tunisians also won the first leg 1-0 to qualify 2-0 on aggregate as they chase a sixth African title having won the now defunct Cup Winners Cup and CAF Cup competitions twice each and the African Super Cup once. The three-time champions Ahli advanced to the final after beating fellow team Zamalek 2-0 and eventually 4-1 on aggregate. Ahli won the first leg 2-1. The match will be played at 9.45pm Tunisian time and will be refereed by Abderrahim Al-Arjoun of Morocco. The second leg is set for 12 November. The winner of the African Champions League, the continent's top football club competition, not only gets the title but gets to represent the continent at the FIFA Club World Championship scheduled to be held in December in Japan. And there is also the matter of $1 million in prize money for the club that becomes the best in Africa. The Egyptian champions were scheduled to leave for Tunisia yesterday as part of a 25-man delegation. They enter the match with a 47-match unbeaten run stretching two years. As part of the team's preparations, Ahli beat El-Geish 3-0 in the sixth week of the national league competition. Ahli management have already won a small victory of their own when their request to delay Ahli's game against Misri in week seven of the league was accepted. The Egyptian Football Association decided to postpone the game which was scheduled for 25 October. Ahli had requested the delay so that the players could focus solely on Etoile. Ahli's supporters and Egyptian newspapers have come up with a few chants that might be useful. One is "Victory starts there, at Sousse"; another is "The road to Japan is via Sousse".
