Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane has hailed his squad for getting the job done over Al-Merrikh and explained why Bafana Bafana star Percy Tau was hauled off at the break.
In a must-win fixture, Ahly had the advantage of playing their away game in their own home ground due to Al Hilal refusing to host their rivals in their stadium in Sudan.
Forced to travel to the Al-Salam Stadium, Merrikh still managed to make a good account for themselves and shocked the African champions on the hour mark when they equalised.
However, two goals in two minutes from Mohamed Sherif and Ahmed Abdelkader handed the Red Devils the win and a collective sigh of relief for Mosimane.
“This game went as we expected, a very difficult game, rivalry, competitors and you know the Champions League history between Egyptian teams and Sudanese teams is always strong games, always emotional games,” he said in the post-match press conference.
“Alhamdulillah we won the game, that’s all that we needed, yes we didn’t play well, but this match we didn’t need to play well, we needed to win. Who cares if you played very good or not good – this is a big game and it’s a must-win, a do or die and we won the match.”
Tau who was speculated to have suffered an injury in the 1-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns last week started the game in Cairo against the Sudanese giants and opened the scoring in the 19th minute.
However, he didn’t take the pitch after the break with Ahly still leading due to a suspected knee injury – which could be a major cause for concern for the South Africa national team coach Hugo Broos.
“Forced replacement injury [on Percy Tau],” Mosimane added.
“I always say I don’t want to make excuses of too many games because we’re Al Ahly we play more than any team in Africa, last season, even this season, no team has played more than us.
“But this match was a game of character and the players respected the bench and we fought for the game, you have to give respect to Sudanese teams, they are fighting, fearless, forceful, very brave teams.
