LIVE: Al Ahly v Esperance | CAF Champions League | May 4th 2018

Match K.O. at 21:00 Cairo local time |
Venue: Borg El Arab Stadium (Alexandria)
Referee: M. Diedhiou (Senegal)

Al Ahly will start their Champions League group stage campaign when they face Tunisian giants Esperance de Tunisia at Alexandria’s Borg El-Arab Stadium tonight.

Both sides were crowned champions in their domestic leagues, but Ahly will be looking to bounce back from their two consecutive defeats last week.

With the recent departure of team playmaker Abdallah El-Saeed and the absence of Azaro and Ajayi, winger Walid Soliman is the only offensive key player at the disposal of coach El-Badri, who was forced to register South African winger Phakamani Mahlambi in the club’s African list to resolve his attacking crisis.

The former Bidvest winger, who joined the Red Devils last summer, has not been El-Badri’s first choice in starting line-ups for weeks, making only 13 appearances this season.

He had been dropped from the club’s initial African squad, but El-Badry registered him on Tuesday.

However, El-Badry got a defensive boost with the recovery of trio Ahmed Fathi, Ali Maaloul and Saad Samir, who were declared fit for the Esperance clash.

The return of this trio could give the Ahly coach many defensive choices against an offensive Esperance side led by Tunisia’s international striker Taha khenissi, who scored twice against Ahly in the last edition when Ahly and Esperance faced-off in the competition’s quarter-finals.

LIVE: Al Ahly v Esperance

Match K.O. at 21:00 Cairo local time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUSFptIfiIk