Farayi Mungazi BBC Sport, Cairo

Mohamed Barakat holds the key for Ahly against Etoile Sahel

There is a buzz around Cairo and it is not the sound of helicopters offering tourists a better view of the pyramids!

Seeing their team avoid defeat in 51 consecutive matches has given Ahly fans a real buzz ahead of Saturday's second leg of this year's Champions League final.

After a goalless first leg against Tunisia's Etoile Sahel in Sousse, a packed house is expected at Cairo's Military Stadium for a return leg that has 'fireworks' written all over it.

There are Ahly flags all over the Egyptian capital, hanging out of bedroom windows, attached to cars and buses and painted on walls - and people's faces.

But while Ahly fans have been gripped by Champions League fever, the Zamalek faithful say they will not necessarily be rooting for the Red Devils.

Many Zamalek fans told BBC Sport that they will not be backing Ahly because it is their duty not to cheer on their biggest rivals in Egyptian football.

"I'm going to the stadium to support Etoile Sahel," said 41-year-old Cairo taxi driver, Ahmed Moutaib. "They have a better team and I want them to win," he added.

Mohamed Samir, a hotel receptionist in his twenties, boldly declared: "As a Zamalek fan, I know that Ahly don't have a chance of winning."

There are exceptions, of course, but such sentiments are shared by many other Zamalek converts up and down the Arab world's most populous country.

It is a mark of the deep-seated hostility between the two clubs that some Zamalek fans are prepared to back a foreign team at the expense of Ahly.

Regardless of what Zamalek supporters say and how they say it, Ahly fans are united to a man in their belief that their team will give them African club football's bragging rights on Saturday.

After all, the Red Devils have been finalists in African club football's blue riband competition four times, winning on three occasions. They are also serial winners of the Egyptian league championship.

Etoile have won four continental titles in the last decade

That said, Etoile Sahel are a formidable outfit and, although no football fan needs to be told what they have accomplished, I will list it anyway.

Saturday marks their second successive appearance in the final of a tournament that started life as the Club Champions' Cup, back in 1964.

In the last decade, Etoile Sahel made it to eight continental finals, winning four titles. They also have a handful of Tunisian league titles under their belt.

Although you cannot legislate for the unpredictability of football, it is my conviction that Ahly will become African kings for the fourth time in their history.

But then again, at the start of the Champions League group phase, I did not believe Etoile Sahel would reach the final.