Caf Champions League: Al Ahly must protect lead vs Esperance – Mosimane

Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane has called on his players to try and protect their lead when they take on Esperance de Tunis in the return leg of the Caf Champions League on Saturday.

The Red Devils beat the Tunisian giants 1-0 in the semi-final first leg meeting played in Tunis with Mohamed Sherif notching the all-important goal in the second half to give them a big advantage going into the return leg at Al Ahly WE Al Salam Stadium.

But despite carrying the advantage, the former Mamelodi Sundowns tactician has maintained a cautious approach for the return leg insisting they are not yet in the final and called on his players to protect their slim win.

“We are playing at home, when we play at home, we play to win. What is important for us is to try to protect our lead, our small lead. You do so by scoring and making sure the opponent doesn’t score,” Mosimane said as quoted by the club’s official website.

“Of course, we enter the second leg with a small advantage but we all know the history of Al Ahly and Esperance. History speaks a lot.

“It will be a very open game because I expect the opponent to try to score and we play at home so we need to score. The result is what matters the most and not how we play. In the end, we want to go through.”

On whether Al Ahly are already in the final, the South African tactician said: “We will cross the bridge when we come to it. We cannot talk now about the final now. The biggest mistake for a coach is to talk about the final while he still has a game to play.”

On his message to the fans, Mosimane said: “Al Ahly fans are an important and decisive factor in the matches, but the team has not played any African match with fans since last season.

“I hope to see them in the stands because they are the 12th player in Al Ahly.”

The Egyptian giants have received a major boost heading into the clash after defender Ahmed "Beckham" Ramadan, returned to the team’s training sessions on Wednesday after recovering from his injury.

Ramadan returned back to training after recovering from the quadriceps muscle injury which sidelined him from the first leg meeting.