It’s going to be a new challenge for Egyptian giants Al Ahly when they start their Orange CAF Confederation Cup campaign this Sunday by playing hosts to Morocco’s Difaa Jadida at the Cairo Air Defense Stadium in the 2nd eighth final round first leg. The Orange CAF Champions League holders dropped to the continent’s second tier club competition after suffering a shock defeat to Libya’s Ahly
Benghazi, and the record African champions will have to go and try win a title they never won before.
This is the third time for Al Ahly to play in the second tier competition. They were knocked out of the 2003 CAF Cup quarter finals losing to Nigeria’s Enugu Rangers. In 2009 it was a similar story. After dropping from the Champions League Ahly was forced to a shootout and defeated by Angola’s Santos. And this time Al Ahly are hoping to be third time lucky in tournament that no Egyptian club has ever won before.
“We have to do our best to win this competition”, Ahly manager Mohamed Youssef told Cafonline.com before the game. “Losing the Champions League title was a shock for us, but we have to recover and keep going. The game against Difaa Jadida will be extremely tough, but we’ll do our best to win”.
The Red Devils are missing a handful of key players. Right wing back Ahmed Fathy is suspended for both legs after being sent off against Ahly Benhazi in the Champions League. Midfielder Hossam Ashour and promising goal poacher Amr Gamal are also suspended after picking their second yellow cards at the same encounter. Veteran striker Emad Metaeb, playmaker Waleed Suleiman and defender Sherif Abdel Fadeel are all injured. But Ahly welcomes back striker Mohamed Nagy “Gedo” and midfielder Shehab Ahmed who missed the midweek domestic league game against Mokawlon through injury.
“Difaa is a very good team and they gave talented strikers, but we know well how to face them. Winning our last three games in the league gave us some confidence and we’ll build on that this Sunday”, added Youssef.
For Ahly’s Gedo, his team is well poised to qualify for the group stage. “Everyone says that we’re the title favorites, and we have to prove that against Difaa. We have to make good use of the first leg at home and put a foot in the group stage. We’re going to miss Fathy, Amr and the others as they are key players but we have the needed experience and commitment to win and qualify”, Gedo told Cafonline.com.
Difaa striker Zakaria Hadraf admitted his team is facing a daunting task against one of the continent’s best teams. “Ahly has the upper hand, I have to confess”, Hadraf told Egyptian radio. “We are happy to face them because I’ve always loved watching Al Ahly. We are coming to Cairo to try to win and our target is a place in the group stage. We will welcome Ahly in Jadida because we always love and respect this great club”, he concluded.
The second eighth finals first leg game is set to kick off at the Cairo Air Defense stadium at 19:00 local time on Sunday, with the second leg set for Saturday the 26th in Jadida, Morocco. The aggregate winner will take place the 2014 Orange CAF Confederation Cup group stage draw, scheduled in Cairo on April 29th.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) News
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