Al Ahly host Tunisias
Esperance in the first-leg of
the Champions League final at
Alexandrias Borg El-Arab
Stadium on Sunday. It will be
their third meeting in three years at Africas premier club
competition. Al Ahly Players comment on
the final: Emad Meteb: Having our supporters back
strengthens us
Definitely this is going to be a
very tough game, but all we are
thinking about is the trophy.
We know well the nature of the encounters between
Egyptian and Tunisian clubs.
We respect Esperance but
were not afraid of them. Well
do our best to win the title and
dedicate it to the souls of our fans who lost their lives in Port
Said. Along our campaign we
were affected negatively by
playing behind closed doors,
and now that we have our
supporters back, theyre going to strengthen our side going
into such an important fixture. GEDO: Mohamed Nagy Gedo: I hope
to continue my scoring streak
It doesnt matter whether I
score goals or not, what
matters most is that Ahly wins
the first leg and then the trophy after the away leg. Our
focus now is to win Sundays
game in a way that makes our
mission in Tunis an easier one.
Definitely I hope to continue
my scoring streak after managing to score three times
against Nigerias Sunshine
Stars in the semi final. If I
scored in the Champions
League final this would be a
very precious goal in my career. Esperance receive Msakni
blow Esperance will be without star
midfielder Youssef Msakni in
Sundays Champions League
final first leg against Ahly.
The 22-year-old has been
forced to undergo emergency surgery to remove the
appendix, only two days before
the eagerly-anticipated clash in
Cairo. Msakni had an operation to
remove the appendix early on
Thursday. He will be out for
seven days, Esperance official
Munzir Al-Chaouachi told
Reuters. Houcine Ragued comments
on the match: Although we eliminated TP
Mazembe, we do not feel
arrogant. On the contrary, I
would say that TP Mazembe
was easier to play than Al
Ahly, Ragued told the FIFA on Thursday. Against Mazembe,
we knew that the most
important thing was to avoid
conceding a goal in
Lubumbashi. We accomplished
that mission, which made the second leg much simpler for us.
I think Al Ahly will be a tougher
opponent. We knew that,
tactically speaking, we were
better than Mazembe. That will
not be the case against Al Ahly. They are more experienced,
better balanced and used to
playing in games with high
stakes. They are less naive than
Mazembe. This final could turn
out to be a game of chess. We must be ready to face what
they throw at us.