Pitso ‘disappointed’ with Al Ahly captain
AL AHLY coach Pitso Mosimane said he was let down by his captain Ayman Ashraf who was red-carded during the final stages of their semi-final defeat to Palmeiras on Tuesday.
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 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 versus 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.”
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,” Mosimane said.
In fact, Mosimane had criticised Fifa and Caf ahead of the semi-final. The Club World Cup was played at the same time as the Africa Cup of Nations 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 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,” Mosimane said.
“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 thirdplace playoff on Saturday.