Jose confident ahead of Sundowns clash

الأربعاء، 04 أبريل 2007 - 22:23

كتب : Mohamed Sabe

Is Jose being overly confident?

Ahli coach Manuel Jose has insisted that his side arrived in South Africa with the objective of beating local champions Sundowns.

Jose and Sundowns manager Gordon Igesund held a press conference in Pretoria on Wednesday ahead of their teams’ CAF Champions League clash that will be played on April 7th.

The Portuguese tactician exuded with confidence as he spoke about Ahli’s chances in the first-leg.

“You will see on Saturday that we will be playing to win. Of course, football is such that we could also lose, but I do not believe we could lose by a margin higher than three or four goals.

“Should that happen (lose by three or more goals) I would consider that a catastrophic disaster,” he said.

Jose also pointed out the benefit of playing the second-leg at home.

“In Egypt we expect to win. We will play attacking football here and finish the job in Cairo in a fortnight.”

Jose set a challenge for Sundowns’ fans to show up and support their team in the important clash.

“Where are the people?” he asked. “When I came here to play Sundowns back in 2001, we played in front of an empty stadium. We later traveled to Cape Town to play against Ajax, and again there were no people.

“I know for a fact that when we play in Cairo, it doesn’t matter who is the opponent, we expect nothing less than 70 000 people for our home matches. And when our supporters in the stands start singing and burning flares it kind of act as a 12th player tour team.”

The return-leg will take place in Cairo on April 20th.

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