Al Ahly were thrashed 5-2 by Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League Group B match held at Loftus Versveld Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday, March 11.
It is the second time now that Ahly were handed a big defeat by the South African champions in the
Champions League. The last time was in 2019 when Pitso Mosimane’s Sundowns ran riot to give Ahly a 5-0 thrashing. This time, the Egyptian giants also failed to register a win in South Africa, a record not even Pitso Mosimane had managed to overcome.
Despite that, the defeat was embarrassing for Al Ahly fans and they started to turn to Mosimane for comfort. Their fans started posting tweets to their former mentor, Mosimane, telling him how much they have been missing him at the club.
There is no secret that Jingles never received the kind of love and support he deserved despite reaching
three consecutive Champions League finals with Ahly, winning the first two of those titles. The Egyptian media, Al Ahly legends, fans, and at times, coaches from other teams never saw Mosimane as a deserving coach to lead Africa’s club of the century.
The love-and hate-relationship between Mosimane and the football fraternity in Egypt was always about results. The media on the other hand demanded certain names to be dropped in favour of others. While the legends were never in favour of his style of play.
Retired Egyptian player Wael Gomaa discusses the situation with KingFut in an interview here.
“People will bring back the discussion about Mosimane,” Gomaa said.
“I am only talking about football here, but there are other things about him that are beyond the technical aspects of the game and I don’t want to talk about them.” Wael Gomaa told KingFut.
Gomaa also went on to single out South African forward Percy Tau for praise.
“The only one fighting for the ball was Percy Tau, but there are so many mistakes and the board did not back the manager with enough signings.
“There are players who play every week at this club and don’t deserve their spot because there’s no competition in this team.”
The main question on every South African’s lips after the match against Ahly, was about the treatment
Mosimane received. Was Mosimane not appreciated properly by the Egyptians when he was still their
coach?
There’s no doubt Mosimane made Ahly competitive against any team in the world. He led them to the FIFA Club World Cup bronze two times in a row, in 2020 & 2021. Mosimane is now the head coach of Saudi Arabian club Al Ahli.
On the other hand, new coach Marcel Koller believes he has improved Ahly, despite the heavy defeat he suffered against Sundowns this weekend.
“I think the team has improved a lot since I took over and played many good matches, including the one at the Club World Cup,” Koller told KingFut.
Ahly’s chances of qualifying for the knockout stages are hanging in the balance, and Koller has asked Sundowns to put in a solid performance against Al Hilal in Sudan.
You can watch the highlights of the Sundowns vs Al Ahly game thanks to Masandawana’s Twitter account here.
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