Ahli was thwarted by Esperance Sportive of Tunis to lose 0-1 in the group phase of the 2011 Orange CAF Champions League, Abeer Anwar reports Esperance Sportive of Tunis was able to surprise all by scoring an early goal by Cameroon born Yannick N'djeng in the 14th minute of the first half to make the visitors' missiona difficult. Ahli players tried a lot to make up for the early goal through a number of attacks that were all futile and the team ended up unable to score the equaliser, which make their coming match in Cairo on 15 August very hard. Esperance and Ahli have met before last year at the semi-final round. Esperance also wanted to exact revenge from Ahli as they are bore at the back of their minds the painful loss in their last encounter on the same venue a few months ago. The two teams were on equal basis as Ahli is the Egyptian League title holder while Esperance is the winner of the two domestic titles for this season. Esperance have the best attack, best defence and conceded the least number of defeats. Their coach, Nabil Maâloul, was eager to snatch victory for his team as it is his first experience as their head coach, as he used to be the assistant of former Tunisia coach Frenchman Roger Lemerre when the Tunisian National team won the 2004 Africa Nations Cup. Now he hopes to continue this rich vein of form as Esperance seek to add the Orange CAF Champions League title to their achievements. Club President, Hamdi Meddeb, said: "We cannot celebrate a lot and now we have to focus on the match against Ahli. We have to prepare well for Ahli as our success will not be completed unless we win the Champions League title," Meddeb was quoted by local daily Assabah. Ahli, on the other hand, are missing two of their key players, midfielder Barakat and Mauritania-born striker Dominique Da Silva, due to injury. Manuel Jose, Ahli's coach, attributed their loss to the absence of both players. He also added that the coming period will be better for Ahli as they have signed a number of new players who will inject new blood into the team. He also added that Ahli will fight hard for the title and will ultimately snatch it.
