Chabab De Belouizdad s coach Marcos Paqueta in the Airport on Tuesday 5 December, 2023. Photo courtesy of Chabab De Belouizdad.
The Cairo giants are due to host their Algerian counterparts on Friday at Alexandria's Borg El-Arab stadium in the third round of the African Champions League group stage.
“Our players are suffering from fatigue after the hard trip to Ghana, but they are motivated and trained well on Monday and are fully focused on the Ahly game,” Paqueta was quoted as saying by the club’s official Facebook page.
In Friday’s game, the Algerian team will be missing defense duo Chouaib Keddad and Youcef Laouafi due to injuries, but the coach expressed great confidence in his team.
“Despite the fact that we have some absentees, the team is ready to secure a positive result against Ahly,” the Brazilian tactician added.
The reigning Champions League holders Ahly opened the group stage campaign with a convincing 3-0 victory over Medeama of Ghana before securing a 1-1 draw against Tanzania's Young Africans in the second round on Saturday.
Despite the draw, Ahly remained at the top of Group D with four points, leading Medeama and Chabab Belouizdad by one point. Young Africans are at the bottom of the group with only one point.
Belouizdad defeated Young Africans 3-0 at home in the group stage opener but lost 2-1 in the second game away against Medeama.
Paqueta refused to reduce his team's chances against Ahly in the away game, stressing that all possibilities are open for every team.
“We hope that we secure qualification for the next round as no team is guaranteed to reach the quarter-finals yet,” he concluded.
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