Former footballer recounts his club’s achievement in Cairo

There is any other sport event that stirred media uproar then the match that opposed the Algerian club Es Setif aginst the Egyptian Al Ahly in 1988 counting for the qualification to the final stage of, the former version of the present African Champions League competition.

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• The Algerian club beat the Egyptians in the away match 2-0 scored by the hero of the day Mustapha Ghrib and his team mate Rahmain Rezzoug. The “Eagles” booked their ticket for the final during the return match when they succeed to “tam” Al Ahly at home.
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• It seems that history repeats itself as the “Pharaohs “ have to catch up two goals versus the Algerians synonymous to a qualification to the World Cup competition in South Africa.
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• Pending the decisive match, “Echourok” met with some of Es Setif’s players and asked them to talk about the general atmosphere that prevailed before the match and how they dealt with the huge media uproar triggered by the Egyptian press then.
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• Mustapha Gharib: “The Egyptians expected to crush us by four goals but they were disappointed”  
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• There are a lot of similarities between the match that opposed Es Setif versus Al Ahly and the upcoming one between the Algerian squad and the Egyptian side concerning the media campaign. Mustapha Gharib has noted that his club Es Setif travelled to Egypt a week before the match and all the commodities were put at their disposal by the hosts.
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• But pressure mounted gradually as the match was getting close starting with the presence of fans in the hotel where they were living who tried to disturb the Algerian delegation, while the Egyptian media wrote lengthy articles in which they downgraded Es Setif , which at that time was playing in the second league, predicting  a large victory with at leas four goals and started celebrations well before the match.
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• The coach “Mokhtar Laaribi” advice spoiled the Egyptians’ plans.
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• Mustapha Gharib acknowledged that the late coach Mokhtar Laaribi played a major role in the success of his team during this match” His confidence and skilfulness were sufficient to spoil the Egyptians plans. I remember the way he used to uplift the players’ spirit asking us to forget the word “defeat” because a whole nation is counting on us. He asked us to concentrate on the training session only; we were one family brought up by Laaribi”.
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• More than 100 thousands Egyptian fans filled Nacer stadium
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• Mustapha Gharib recalls the extraordinary human wave that flocked to Nacer Stadium on the D day. More than 100 thousand fans filled the stands and stood as one behind Al Ahly versus Es Setif, but the Algerian players knew how to deal with this heavy atmosphere and made abstraction of the fans’ boos.
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•  Es Setif’s achievement in Cairo has to be a model to follow by the Algerian national squad in the sense that the “Pharaohs” are famous for their attempts to destabilize their components at home, this is to tell that Ziani’s team mates are able to take on the challenge in Cairo on November14, and follow in the footsteps of the Es Setif players in 1988.
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