Zamalek a different proposition at home

The 3-0 thumping handed to Zamalek by Mamelodi Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday afternoon wasn't so much a surprise, considering their record on the road. Photo by: Samuel Shivambu/Backpagepix

The 3-0 thumping handed to Zamalek by Mamelodi Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday afternoon wasn't so much a surprise, considering their record on the road. Photo by: Samuel Shivambu/Backpagepix

Published Oct 17, 2016

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The 3-0 thumping handed to Zamalek by Mamelodi Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday afternoon wasn’t so much a surprise if you consider the Egyptians’ poor record on the road.

They are far more convincing at home, but coach Moamen Soliman still had to dig deep to give his club supporters hope that Zamalek can overturn this heavy deficit in the second leg of the CAF Champions League final.

Awful doesn’t even begin to describe their showing at the weekend, several days after Soliman had promised to resign if he lost, only to backtrack by claiming that his words were taken out of context by the press.

There will be no ambiguity in the build-up to Sunday’s return match at the Borg el-Arab Stadium in Alexandria - that they need divine intervention to be crowned champions of Africa for the sixth time is pretty clear cut and needs no interpretation.

“What has come to my mind now is that we have an exam and my players have to study,” Soliman said after the match.

“I can’t blame my players because if I do that, it will be impossible to play another game.

“In my mind, they are still the same.

“They are big players and deserve to be in the final.

“We were naive, and I almost cannot believe the mistakes we made in the final of the Champions League, but this is football and I can live with that.

“I promise that you will find a different team in Egypt.”

He’s right. Zamalek are likely to be transformed in their own backyard, but Sundowns have beaten them there before when they humbled one of Africa’s giants with a 2-1 defeat three months ago in the group stages of the competition. What will be different this time?

“Of course I admire the work of (Sundowns coach) Pitso Mosimane. You ask me what are we going to do in Egypt? Sundowns are strong and fast, we have to be stronger and faster.

“We have the best players in Egypt, so I hope it can be our day.

“I have only been with this team for two months and they don’t yet understand my philosophy from the training session we’ve had together,” Soliman explained.

“Time is my enemy now because we have only had 20 training sessions.

“We obviously need a miracle to win the cup. We know it's possible (when games are played over two legs) because we beat Wydad 4-0 in the first leg of the semi-finals and they beat us 5-2 when we went to Casablanca.”

While he was busy putting out fires from the Egyptian press who wanted answers for the club’s dismal performance, Zamalek president Mortada Mansour was quoted as saying he would not accept less than 70 000 spectators at the Borg el-Arab Stadium - which sits a capacity crowd of 86 000, although it is supposed to be restricted to 20 000 because of the political upheaval in Egypt - when the second leg is played there on Sunday.

Soliman could very well be relieved of his duties if he does not deliver and the projected crowd, likely to be made up of the Egypt Ultras, is indeed accurate.

Such is the life of being a Zamalek coach.

Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter @superjourno

The Star

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