Al Ahly Head Coach Pitso Mosimane says his team gave their best but couldn’t beat the ‘number one team in the world’, Bayern Munich, in yesterday’s FIFA Club World Cup semi-final.
Robert Lewandowski scored a brace for Bayern in their 2-0 win on Monday, scoring a goal in each half.
But it was a spirited performance by Al Ahly and Mosimane says he was happy with the effort from his team.
“Ja, a very different game for us, played a very good team. You understand why they’re number one in the world at this point in time, number one in Europe also,” Mosimane said in the post match presser.
“Ja, they denied us to have the ball. We played well in patches, there were times where we could pass the ball the way we want to play, but it was not coming most of the time. But you have to also accept that, that they denied us the chance to play.”
“They regain the ball quicker, and they press us quicker. They’re more experienced. Ja, but we could only do something on a break. And we knew that, and we expected it. But we did not make the right choices of passes when we had the breaks. And our ball retention was not very good. But you have to accept the’yre good team. And, yeah, I don’t think we were that bed. We were defensively organized. We just lacked a little bit of the quality that they have to create or score goals.”
“But yeah, we will look forward to the next match. And with a good team, I have seen them scoring more goals against bigger teams. So we cannot just be too hard on ourselves. But we have to accept that we can do better. When we are the best in the continent, you always have to try and see how far are you with Europe? And I think tonight that the difference to say how far are we with Europe at the moment.”
“So we did better with Qatar, which is the Asian team. And we didn’t do well against the European team. But to be honest not to say that we make an excuse because we lost. They are a better team than us, individually. they are more experienced.”
It was Mosimane’s first loss since taking over at the Egyptian giants.
“I don’t know if there’s any coach who looks happy after he loses the match. I don’t know, it’s my first time ever since I’ve been at Al Ahly for the last four or five months, it’s my first defeat in five months.”
“So you got to understand how I feel. And I hate losing. But anyway, I don’t know of a coach who’s happy to lose and smile to lose. We prepared very well for this game we prepared hard and to lose, it’s not nice. It’s a bitter pill on this. Even though we still have to accept that we played Bayern, the mere fact we lost, I’m not happy.”
Al Ahly play Brazil’s Palmeiras in the third/fourth playoff on Thursday.
