Ahli will start its two-legged final on Saturday in Sousse towards claiming the African Champions League for the third time in a row. Inas Mazhar reports from the Tunisian hometown of the challenger Etoile de Sahel Both teams share the same incentive to win the second most prestigious African football title after the African Nations Cup. Ahli of Egypt is after a sixth title which would put the team one ahead of arch-rivals Zamalek who have won the Champions League five times before Ahli levelled the score last year. Ahli are also looking to make a third appearance at the World Clubs Championship in Japan, an achievement which will make history for the red devils. En route to the final, Ahli had beaten Libya's Al-Ittihad by a lone goal in the semifinals to qualify on a 1-0 aggregate while Etoile had thrashed Sudan's Al-Hilal 3-1 to advance on a 4-3 aggregate to set the stage for a repeat of the 2005 grand finale. Ahli won the 2005 final 3-0 on aggregate. The two teams had played a scoreless draw in Sousse, then Etoile lost 3-0 to the hosts in Cairo at the Military Stadium. For the Egyptian giants, it is their third successive final appearance in the continent's most prestigious club competition, Etoile has been training in a closed camp as they seek to avenge their title loss two years ago. They are certainly not the same team as two years ago. The Tunisians, who had failed to annex the title on two occasions in 2004 and 2005, have improved in the past two years and are much stronger and seem to be tough contenders for the title. Last year, they managed to win the Confederations Cup. Ahli was scheduled to arrive in Sousse last night on board a private airplane which the club rented specifically for the game to save time and effort. Sousse is almost 120kms from Tunis the capital. A week before the title holders took off for Tunisia, the team's coach Hossam El-Badri travelled to Tunisia to check on the accommodations, food, training pitches and the playing stadium as well as transportation. El-Badri was impressed with the hospitality of the North Africans who had made sure that Ahli stay in a secluded hotel far from the probing media and spectators. Unlike the past two years, El-Badri has insisted that media representatives and fans should not stay in the same hotel as the team, saying it was going to be a tough and decisive match and that he would like his team to concentrate and focus on the match without interruption. Head coach of Ahli Manuel Jose said that he expects the first leg of the final to be a difficult match. "We have played them before, but I know they are now a different team. That's why I know it is going to be a difficult match and not easy at all. "But this time we will play to win because winning will make our job easier in Cairo, not like last time. This time we will not be looking for any draw results. We will try to score as many goals as we can depending on the situation. I don't like the scoreless draw result." Ahli's members in the national team were spared exhaustion from the trip to Japan they were scheduled to take last week to play in a friendly which Egypt lost 4-1. Ahli had complained about the problem of jet lag and had asked to be excluded from the trip. The Egyptian Football Association accepted the club's apologies to help Ahli prepare for the Champions League final.
