CAIRO: Ahly coach Manuel Jose is confident his side will go all the way at the CAF Champions League despite their stuttering displays in the Egyptian League.
The Cairo giants, who are aiming to a win a fifth successive league title, got off their new campaign to a shaky start.
Ahly collected just four points in their first three matches, stumbling against Masri and Arab Contractors.
But Jose is adamant the five-time African champions have what it takes to reach the latter stages of the Champions League.
We might have had bad luck in some recent matches we played especially in the national competition, the Portuguese tactician told cafonline.com.
But this doesn’t mean that we are not capable of topping the group and even reaching the final.
Ahly, who are on top of Group A with seven points, face Zimbabwe s Dynamos Harare away from home on Saturday.
The Red Devils needed a last-gasp strike from Mohamed Abou-Trika to beat Dynamos 2-1 at Cairo stadium 10 days ago.
That alerted Jose that Ahly s task in the continental competition has become more difficult.
I think we’ll be facing more challenge from African teams in this competition. Everybody wants to beat Ahly.
The teams are so ambitious now and have started playing very well against us as we have seen with Dynamos.
But Ahly will face these teams to claim the title. It’s our reputation that we need to defend.
We will be cautious and very careful and have started preparing seriously because I’m sure the coming matches will be tougher.
We will not afford to make fatal mistakes because they might cost us a semi-final berth, which we don’t want, he added.
