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Nigeria’s representatives in the CAF Champions League, Heartland FC will at the end of today’s match against AL-Ahly know whether they will still be in contention for a place in the semi-finals of the continent’s premier club competition.

The encounter comes up in the Egyptian capital Cairo and the Nigerian club side will be in desperate need of a win to keep alive their chances of advancing to the next round of the competition from Group B.

The side handled by Samson Siasia has only managed to garner four points from their opening four matches of the group stage and only got their first win in penultimate weekend’s 2-1 win over another Egyptian side, Ismaily in Owerri.

But that is what they will need to do tonight against the six-time African champions who are also in dire need of a win to join Algeria’s JS Kabylie as the two qualifiers from the group.

Last season, Heartland made it all the way to the final of the CAF Champions League mostly on the strength of their impressive form away from home. But this season the reverse has been the case for the Owerri based side as which had lost all their two away games so far, losing 1-0 respectively to Ismaily and JS Kabylie.

Tough task ahead

It is a tough task that lies ahead for Heartland as they attempt to leapfrog Al-Ahly who have five points from their opening four games.

“We are going into their territory and they are not just going to sit down and watch us win,” said the team’s assistant coach Emeka Ezeugo before the team’s departure for Egypt.

“They will try everything they can to keep us from winning. They would be utilizing every opportunity they get so we know we are in for a tough game and therefore we should not relax,” added the former Nigerian international.

Heartland can definitely not afford to relax but they also need not be afraid as their opponents in today’s game have also not been at their best in recent times, only managing a draw against JS Kabylie in their last encounter, coupled with their poor run of form in the Egyptian league.

Brown and Thankgod out

But the Nigerian flag bearers will have to do that without the services of their star defender Ike Thankgod,

who is down with a knee injury, and goalkeeper Austin Brown, who has been left out of the squad according to Siasia, not because of the blunder he committed in the 1-0 loss to JS Kabylie, but on disciplinary grounds.

“After the blunder in Ismaily, he came back and said he was injured when we resumed training,” Siasia was quoted as saying in mtnfootball.com. “Instead of coming back to training, he said he was injured. How are you going to use someone who wasn’t training?” asked the former Nigeria international.

“He is a very good goalkeeper and everybody can make mistakes but we have to learn from our mistakes. Don’t come back to tell me you are injured when I didn’t see you get injured during the game. It is all about discipline.” Brown’s place is now expected to be taken by either Ikechukwu Ezenwa or Daniel Akpeyi, both former junior internationals, while Thankgod’s place is expected to be taken by the versatile Chinedu Efugh who will likely play in central defence alongside Kingsley Udoh.

Siasia was contracted for the purpose of successfully guiding Heartland to the Champions League trophy and will expectedly come under pressure if he doesn’t deliver.

Al-Ahly coach under pressure

But he isn’t alone as far as his opposite number Hossam Al-Badri is equally under scrutiny from the club’s management following Al-Ahly’s disappointing start to the season.

Al-Ahly drew twice in their opening three Egyptian Premier League games of the season and won just once in four Champions League group stage matches.

Earlier in the week, reports in the Egyptian media suggested that Al-Ahly were considering bringing in a foreign coach to replace Al-Badri, who is yet to win over his side’s supporters despite leading the team to the league title in his first season in charge.

The reports gained more ground when the club’s former handler Manuel Jose, who left in the summer of 2009 for Saudi club side Ittihad, and who earned a cult status among Ahly fans after steering the team to a host of local and continental titles during a glorious five-year reign, made his first visit to the club since his heroic departure.

Al-Badri, who used to be an assistant to Jose, was frequently compared with the highly-rated 64-year-old Portuguese tactician, but the 50-year-old assured fans that he’s cast in a very different mould from Jose.

“I’ve learned a lot from Jose but there are no similarities in our managerial styles, so we cannot be compared,” he told the Egyptian press.

Veteran skipper out

He will however be without his captain Ahmed Hassan who looks to be out for between four to six months after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in Egypt’s 2012 Nations Cup qualifier against Sierra Leone in Cairo.

Besides the injury being a blow to both Ahly and the Pharaohs, it is also a personal setback to Hassan who earned his 175th international cap in the game against the Sierra Leoneans and is only two starts away from breaking former Saudi Arabian goalkeeper Mohamed Al-Deayea’s world record.