Al Ahly head coach Marcel Koller has protected his players and insisted even a club of their statue cannot win every match and every competition.
Koller had to face some tough questions after his side got knocked out of the African Football League semi-final by Mamelodi Sundowns, failing to overcome a 1-0 first leg defeat despite playing in front of 50,000 fans in Cairo on Wednesday.
After the match, Koller insisted that losing is part of the game and he cannot fault his players much – apart from their finishing – because they gave their all.
“We can’t win every game, losing is part of football,” he told journalists.
“The CAF Super Cup came in the middle of our pre-season, we weren’t worse than them and also missed a penalty. We missed one today again and many chances.
“It happens. It was two games, we lost the first leg 1-0. Here we should’ve won. But it didn’t work out.
“But I want to protect my players because it’s at your work not every article is always perfect. The players, similar to others who work, don’t bring their absolute best over the whole week.
“That happens in football, you can have a bad day, you can have a bad game, but I think that was not the case today. My players gave everything, they tried their best. The only thing missing was us scoring a goal.
“But it happens that we also lose games.”
