Johannesburg - Following his side’s 2-0 semi-final loss to Palmeiras in the Club World Cup on in Abu Dhabi Tuesday evening, Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane said he was let down by his skipper Ayman Ashraf who was red-carded during the final stages of the clash.
Ashraf received a straight red card in the 81st minute with Al Ahly already 2-0 down. Raphael Veiga opened the scoring for the Brazilian outfit Palmeiras in the 39th minute, before Dudu doubled his team’s advantage in the 49th minute.
“[I’m] disappointed with Ayman and the red card I think he knows himself as a captain, he leaves us with no hope at 10 vs 11, and 2-0 against Palmeiras. A little bit of lack of discipline with him there, I’m not happy with him,” said Mosimane
“We let ourselves down with the red card, that was the time when we had momentum, hoping we can get a goal and we looked like we’re scoring, even though we had the ball off the post and I don’t know, looked like a penalty.”
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Mosimane avoided giving his opinion on the Al Ahly’s penalty shout which was ruled against by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), but at the same time referred to the fact that his team had less than ideal preparation time coming into the clash.
“I can’t say, if VAR says it’s not a penalty then we have to respect that. We started to play stronger after conceding a goal but what can we do? We played a good team, quality and they were stronger and fresher.”
In fact, Mosimane had criticised Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf) ahead of the semi-final. The Club World Cup clashes with the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) which ended in Cameroon on Sunday, and as a result Al Ahly were unable to draw on their full complement of players with Egypt losing in the final.
Al Ahly had to play Mexican outfit Monterrey in their first match of the competition on Saturday to qualify for the semi-final. Palmeiras, meanwhile, began their campaign at the semi-final stage.
The performance, and tiredness of Ah Ahly was evident explained Mosimane.
🗣️“It’s a unique moment. To score in a competition as important as the Club World Cup, is indescribable. It’s one of the best moments of my life.”
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) February 8, 2022
🦸♂️ Raphael Veiga on the euphoria in the @Palmeiras squad and his belief they can win the #ClubWC 🏆
📰➡️ https://t.co/w4RHFaflvw pic.twitter.com/NIZKxl4Y4Z
“The last game they played I think was on the second and we played two, three days back – you could see the difference in intensity but we played well in the second half, in patches. Not all the time.”
“We hoped to be in a better position than last year, but we’re in the same position that we were at this stage in the semi-finals last year. Coincidently, the same score. That really means that we have to improve, we haven’t improved in that sense.”
Al Ahly will now play in the third place playoff on Saturday, with their opponents to be revealed on Wednesday evening in the match between English club Chelsea and Saudi football team Al-Hilal.
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