LIVE: Al Ahly v Township Rollers F.C | CAF Champions League
Match info:
Match K.O. at 21:00 Cairo local time
Venue: Borg El Arab Stadium, Alexandria
Egypt’s champions Ahly are to resume their Champions League adventure on Tuesday when they face the Township Rollers of Botswana at Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab Stadium.
The clash will mark the debut of French coach Patrice Carteron who replaced Hossam El-Badry as Ahly’s new manager last month.
Despite guiding the Red Devils to their 40th league title in their history last season, El-Badry lost his post due to the team’s poor results in the Champions League group stage.
The eight-time African champions started their group stage campaign with a disappointing goaless draw at home with Esperance de Tunis, before slumping to a 2-0 loss to Uganda’s Kampala City, slipping to the bottom of Group A with a solitary point from their opening two matches.
Esperance lead the group with six points, followed by Kampala and Township Rollers with three each.
“I know we are in a very difficult situation,” Carteron told CAF Online on Sunday.
“We have a single point from two matches and that’s not the way it should be. We have nothing but to do our best in the coming games, starting from Township Rollers game at home.
“The maximum points are our target and then let’s see what happens next.”
Ahly started their preparations for the champions League earlier this month with a seven days training camp in Croatia before resuming preparations in Cairo.
Despite signing many players in the inter-season, Ahly have not registered any new players in their African list despite news surrounding the possible registration of Malian defender Salif Koulibali. The club should offload one of their four foreign-based players to make room for the Malian defender.
Township Rollers manager Nikola Kavazovic said on Monday his side will play a ”balanced game” against Ahly in Tuesday’s Champions League clash.
“We will try to be balanced in all moments of the game,” Nikola Kavazovic told the club’s official website.
“For sure, we will not defend 90 minutes, but also we don’t have the intention to attack them like we are going to do in Gaborone.”
The Serbian coach revealed that his side has no information concerning Ahly’s current situation, adding that his men are facing the unknown.
“So far in the Champions League, we have analysed our opponents through video analysis down to the smallest details.
“For the first time we are going into the unknown; this is first time that any fresh DVD was not provided so we could analyse the opponent.
“We don’t know anything about them except some of their players played at the World Cup.”
The Township Rollers are third in the group with three points, while Ahly have a single point.
LIVE: Al Ahly v Township Rollers F.C | CAF Champions League
TV FEED will be updated before the game
