Lierse made a shaky start to their Belgian first-division campaign and Wadi Degla followed suit in Egypt but Maged Sami, the owner of both clubs, is not worried. Degla have earned Egyptian Premier League promotion for the first time in their seven-year history and opened their top-flight campaign in an impressive fashion. They crushed Arab Contractors 4-1 in their maiden first-division appearance but could not build on that, suffering 6-2 and 3-2 defeats by newly-promoted side MCDR and Police Union respectively. "Degla players became over confident following the win over Contractors," Egyptian businessman Sami told FilGoal.com on Friday. "Their arrogance was clear in the heavy defeat against MCDR but they needed that shock to be aware that the task ahead of them is difficult. "Anyway, losing by a six-goal margin in one game is better than losing by a one-goal margin in six games. Degla play attacking football, the team doesn't want to sit back and defend to snatch a point. "The team have three points now, just one behind some powerful clubs like Ahli and Zamalek so I think the results are not bad." Lierse's start in Belgium was much worse though. The four-time Belgian champions are rooted to the bottom of the table with no points after suffering four consecutive defeats. "Despite the defeats, Lierse are improving. We signed several new players who need time to gel into the team," Sami added. "We signed three players in the past few days and I believe they will make much difference, especially veteran striker Wesley Sonck. "Lierse won the league title in 1997 after collecting just one point in five games, maybe it's a good omen," Sami joked.
