Over the weekend, four Egyptian football teams will try to advance in their respective African club championships. Ahmed Morsy reports Six-time African champions Ahli will meet South African champions Supersport United in Polokwane in the return leg of the round of 32 in the African Champions league on Saturday. A fortnight ago, Ahli claimed a 2- 0 first leg victory in Cairo Stadium. As preparation, Ahli played to a 2-2 draw against Military Production in a friendly on Saturday. Ahli's Portuguese coach Manuel Jose fielded several youngsters as a result of the absence of internationals due to their commitments with the national team. In order to qualify for the round of 16, Ahli need to win or draw and can even lose by one goal. However, Supersport United coach Gavin Hunt believes that Ahli is an ordinary team which his side outplayed in Cairo. "We can overturn the deficit if we play the way we did. Why not? We were the better side in Cairo. We just have to ensure that they don't score or else they will kill off the contest with an away goal," Hunt told kickoff.com. "In the build-up to the first leg game, people spoke about Ahli as if they were invincible but in fact they played like an ordinary team. "What I can say is that I'm proud of the guys and I believe that they can cause an upset in Polokwane and come up with a plan to beat them." Ahli trainer Mohamed Youssef believes that his presence with Ahli football manager Sayed Abdul-Hafiz in South Africa will play an important role for Ahli's international players after the Egyptian national team went down 1-0 to South Africa in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. "Our presence in South Africa is good. We will try to quickly prepare our players psychologically after Egypt's loss," Youssef told the Egyptian Radio. In the same tournament, Zamalek host Tunisia's Club Africain in their second leg match in Cairo on Saturday after being beaten by the Tunisian side 4-2 in Rades, Tunisia. Zamalek coach Hossam Hassan put down the loss to lack of experience at the continental level. "Zamalek's players don't have the experience of playing in African tournaments. The team has not taken part in any matches for a long time and that affected us against Africain," Hassan told Egyptian TV. Domestic Egyptian football has been suspended since demonstrations which forced ex- president Hosni Mubarak to step down began on 25 January. "Only (goalkeeper) Abdel-Wahed El-Sayed is experienced enough. "They (the players) helped Zamalek take the lead in the Egyptian domestic league table. I admit that they made mistakes but they are not solely responsible for the loss." Hassan also expressed dissatisfaction with the selection by the African federation (CAF) of Algerian referee Mohamed Meknous for the decisive return leg in Cairo, implying that Meknous could be biased toward the Tunisian outfit. Ahli boss Jose believes that his team's arch-rivals Zamalek are capable of beating Club Africain and advance to the Champions League last 16. "I watched Zamalek's encounter against Africain and I think the Egyptian team can win by more than two goals in the return leg," the Portuguese told FilGoal.com. In their last preparation for the second leg, Zamalek suffered a 1-0 loss to the Western Tobacco football team in a friendly played on Monday. Like Ahli, Zamalek were missing their capped players who were on the Egyptian squad in South Africa. In the African Confederation Cup, Haras Al-Hedoud will play their second leg game against Dedebit in Ethiopia on Saturday with sky-high morale as they are almost certain of advancing to the next round after crushing the Ethiopian side 4-0 in Cairo a fortnight ago. Nevertheless, Al-Hedoud boss Tarek El-Ashri warned against complacency in the return leg, even though he seemed satisfied with the comprehensive victory. "It is a comfortable win but there is still a second half of this fixture in Ethiopia. Nothing is guaranteed," El-Ashri said. As for Ismaili's participation in the Confederation Cup, Africa's second most prestigious club competition, they are now close to qualifying for the round of 16 following their 2-0 victory over Kenyan Sofapaka two weeks ago in Ismailia. On Saturday, Sofapaka need to win the return leg by the same score line just to keep their qualification hopes alive. Ismaili are currently in the throes of a financial crisis which could threaten the club's march in the tournament. Ismaili Dutch coach Mark Wotte urged businessmen who support the club to help it get through the tight spot. The team does not have enough funds to pay the salaries of their players on time. The problem has been compounded by the revolution which stopped football and its revenues. Accordingly, Ismailia Gov Abdel-Galil El-Fakharani has agreed to finance a portion of the travel costs to Kenya after Ismaili chairman Nasr Abul Hassan sent out an SOS for help.
