Mosimane applauds Al Ahly’s masterclass

Al Ahly played smart, displayed their famous spirit and could have won by more than 1-0 against CF Monterrey, Pitso Mosimane said after a 2021 Fifa Club World Cup victory that may go down as one of the coach’s finest yet with the Cairo giants.

The Egyptian side were missing “about 11 players”, Mosimane said of Saturday night’s second-round opener for his team at Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The victory saw the Red Devils into their second successive Club World Cup semifinals, where they will meet Brazil’s Palmeiras in a replay of 2021’s third-place playoff in which Ahly won on penalties.

Fifa’s controversial scheduling clash meant Ahly had six players missing against Mexican outfit Monterrey because they are still on duty at the Africa Cup of Nations for Egypt.

Ahly’s injuries include Bafana Bafana star Percy Tau, Badr Benoun, Ammar Hamdy and Salah Mohsen.

Playing a tactical masterclass of tight, counterattacking football Ahly opened the scoring through Mohamed Hany’s 53rd-minute strike against Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football champions Monterrey, then held onto the lead with spectacular defensive organisation.

“In football anything is possible. And in football you don't make excuses. If you have 11 players on the pitch and you have five substitutes anything is possible,” Mosimane said.

“There is no rule to say a better team, or a good team, or a full line-up team will win. No. The match is played on the pitch.

“So we don’t make excuses, and we don’t say it because we won. You can trace all the interviews, we said it, we said we have the spirit of Al Ahly.

“And Al Ahly is one team that people might not know. This team has the spirit.”

Mosimane admitted Ahly’s withdrawals had made Monterrey the favourites.

“You lose about 11 players — we had seven out, two with ACLs [anterior cruciate ligaments], and we lost Percy Tau, our main striker.

“We don’t even have Mohamed Sherif here, I was playing Walid Sooliman as a striker. So you can see that I had to do what I had to do, I was surviving.

“Monterrey are good, they play well. But we were a little bit organised, we frustrated them.

“We played a bit on the counterattack. And we created many chances. We should have won by more.”

Ahly’s list of stars still at the Nations Cup includes goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenaway, striker Sherif, midfielders Hamdi Fathi and Amr El Solia, and defenders Ayman Ashraf and Akram Tawfik.

The win could be big for Mosimane at a personal level. Despite his five trophies since his move to Ahly from Mamelodi Sundowns in September 2020 — including back-to-back Caf Champions League and Super Cup winners’ medals — Ahly have delayed renewing Mosimane’s contract until after the Club World Cup.