Flying high with confidence after winning their sixth CAF Champions League title ten days ago, Ahli were brought down to the reality of domestic football with the 1-0 defeat at the hands of Police.

"The result didn’t reflect how the game went. We were better for large parts of the match but couldn’t transform our superiority into goals," Al-Badri said after the game.

"With more time passing without finding the net, the players became tensed and they made a lot of unforced errors."

With two defeats out of their first eight games, many are already questioning if the defeat will affect Ahli's title contention.

"It's still too early in the season to rule any team out," considered Al-Badri.

Refereeing errors

Ahli's loss came courtesy of a second half penalty scored by Ahmed Duiedar after Mohamed Yehia was brought down in the box by Amir Abdul-Hamid.

Later on, the referee waved away penalty calls from Mohamed Abou-Treika and Ahmed Al-Sayed, which didn’t impress Al-Badri.

"I wasn’t happy with some refereeing decisions, but I guess we have to watch the game again before judging the officials."

Club World Cup

After being crowned African champions, Ahli will be taking part in the Club World Cup competition in Japan in few weeks time.

"The players were not fully focused as they had the World Cup on their minds.

"But we still have two league games before we fly to Japan and we are eager to win them both."