JOHANNESBURG: An air of desperation hangs over four clubs this weekend though they will be playing only their second match in the 2010 African Champions League group phase.
Former title holders Entente Setif of Algeria and Ismailia of Egypt and runners-up Dynamos of Zimbabwe slumped to home losses two weeks ago while another beaten finalist Heartland of Nigeria were held.
All are away on Saturday or Sunday, all are likely to lose, and that would leave all bar Heartland with a six-point deficit to overcome in four rounds with two of the fixtures on foreign soil.
Heartland face JS Kabylie in Algeria, Dynamos meet Esperance in Tunisia, Setif play defending champions TP Mazembe in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ismailia go to Cairo for an Egyptian showdown against Al-Ahly.
Setif striker Nabil Hemani summed up the crisis facing the teams who flopped at home: "We need at all costs to recover from our loss at home in the first series of games.
"The match against Mazembe is a watershed for us. We have to make sure we do not return home from the Congo empty handed," he stressed during a break from training.
Hemani, leading scorer Hadj Aissa and Mohamed Yekhlef missed the 1-0 loss to Esperance through injury and coach Noureddine Zekri hopes all will be fit for the clash with the Congolese ‘Crows’.
Diego Garzitto, Franco-Italian coach of a Mazembe team crowned champions last year on the away-goal rule after sharing four goals with Heartland in a two-leg decider, offered little hope to Setif.
"After winning away to a good Dynamos team we have two consecutive home fixtures and we aim to win those too. We made a few mistakes in Harare and worked hard to solve those problems."
Ismailia have signed experienced Nigerian striker Godwin Ezeh to try and ignite an attack that squandered several scoring chances during a 1-0 defeat against Kabylie.
Hit hard by the long-term absence of injured playmaker Hosny Abd-Rabou, the club who conquered Africa 41 years ago have also lifted a ban imposed on defender Moatasem Salem over a transfer wrangle.
Ahly, who came from behind to hold Heartland 1-1 in Owerri, have won the African Champions League a record six times and their squad includes new Lebanese striker Mohamned Ghaddar.
Mohamed ‘Geddo’ Nagy, five-goal hero when Egypt won the African Nations Cup in Angola last January, was not used against Heartland amid a bitter transfer tug-of-war with Cairo rivals Zamalek over the former Al-Ittihad striker.
Esperance, who netted 10 times in three home qualifiers for the mini-league stage, face a Dynamos side that suffered their first domestic defeat of the season last weekend when falling 2-1 to Motor Action.
Given just one week to prepare for Ahly, new Heartland coach Samson Siasia now takes his modest squad to Tizi Ouzou where Kabylie scored six goals and conceded none in three qualifiers.
