Pitso Mosimane was close to leaving his post-match press conference after Al Ahly had rallied from behind to celebrate a 3-2 injury-time win on Sunday.
The ‘Club of the Century’ played bottom-placed side Entag El-Harby but needed a 93rd minute goal by Water Bwalya to secure the three points.
Mosimane opted to rest in-form striker Mohamed Sherif and gave Marwan Mohsen a rare start. After the game he defended his striker but was interrupted by one of the journalists attending the press conference.
“I know what everybody says about Marwan,” Mosimane started, when he was interrupted.
“Wait, wait… Should we leave the press conference,” he asked when clearly surprised by the journalist.
“You want to talk? You interrupt the press conference? Wait for me to finish.”
The situation was cleared shortly after, with Mosimane apologising: “Maybe I don’t understand the language but I don’t like to be interrupted.”
The South African coach continued to defend his striker, who he thought helped the team during their 3-2 win.
“So Marwan, he came with a cut here (on his head) but he was there before the penalty we scored. He went in with his head and was hit in a 50/50 with the goalkeeper,” he explained.
“I know sometimes he doesn’t look too nice, but football is not about that. It’s about the collective. When we lose the ball, he was the first one to come back (and defend).
“He was playing very well, I liked his spirit.”
Mosimane went on to praise his whole team for the spirit they showed in the last-minute victory, which kept them in title race.
“Today’s game was interesting. There are a lot of things that I have learned and seen tonight,” he said.
“Never say the game is over until the final whistle. What happened today shows that we are able to come back and win the game in the final minutes.
“Tonight’s game has told me something that we have a team of brave warriors. Our players fought tonight, despite the difficult conditions of the game.
“We played with four strikers and I substituted all the defenders because we were searching for the victory.”
Al Ahly now sit just six points behind log leaders Zamalek and still have two games in hand over their bitter rivals.
