Manuel Jose was infuriated with his side's second-half display

Ahly coach Manuel Jose greeted the Egyptians' place in the Champions League final with mixed emotions.

The Portuguese coach was delighted his team beat Asec of Ivory Coast 3-2 on aggregate but he was incensed by the defending champions' poor second-half display.

Despite leading 1-0 at half-time in Abidjan, Ahly lost 2-1 with the Ivorian team missing several gilt-edged opportunities to win the tie outright.

"If Asec had scored a third goal, we would have gone out - I'm sure of that," Jose told BBC Sport.

"In the first half, we were good against a very good team who we controlled.

"We played very well and scored a good goal, but the second half was a cartoon.

"I am very upset with my players. In the final, we must be the real Ahly and not the cartoon we were in the second half."

Nonetheless, Jose is confident his team can overcome first-time finalists CS Sfaxien of Tunisia in the two-legged tie which gets underway in Egypt on 29-27 October.

"I consider us favourites because we have a lot of experience in this competition," he explained.

"The most important thing is to score two or three goals in Cairo - if we can do that, we can win."

Meanwhile, Asec's French coach Patrick Liewig rued the chances missed by his side, with striker Vincent Die Foneye spurning seven clear-cut chances.

"I'm a little frustrated because when leading 2-1, we had more chances to score but didn't take them," the Frenchman told BBC Sport.

"Ahly's first goal was a Christmas gift and that complicated everything, but they had one chance and took it.

"At this level, you shouldn't need ten chances to score. We have some regrets because we had the possibility to qualify."