Al Ahly are targeting a historic first win in South Africa when they face Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League at Loftus Versveld on Saturday.
After the 2-2 draw in Cairo last week, they followed up with a 3-0 win over Coton Sport in their catch-up game due to their participation at the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.
With four points from their opening three games, they sit third, two points behind Al Hilal and three behind Masandawana.
On Tuesday evening they face Al Mokalwoon in the Egyptian Premier League before their 8,325km journey to OR Tambo – and Sporting Director Sayed Abdel-Hafiz is clear in their target despite them never picking up three points in their travels to Mzansi.
“An essential win at a crucial time. We had no choice but to win after the Al Hilal loss and then [the] draw with Sundowns,” he said after the Coton Sport win, as per KingFut.
“The Coton game was challenging in light of the group’s circumstances, but the qualification is still in our hands.
“In the last three Champions Leagues that we won (2013, 2020, and 2021), we faced the same difficulties in the group stage, and despite that, we qualified in the end.
“For example, in 2013, there were difficult circumstances and had Zamalek with us in the same group, and we draw in the opening game, and then lost to Orlando, but we qualified.
“The next Sundowns game, we will go with only one goal, which is to achieve a positive result, but we hope that we can pick up a win, because it will put us in another place.”
The highly-anticipated fixture will take place on Saturday in Tshwane at 15h30.
