Pitso Mosimane says there are no excuses for their FIFA Club World Cup semi-final exit and suggests they haven’t improved since last year.
Mosimane and the Red Devils secured third place in the 2020 edition when they beat Palmeiras after being knocked out by Bayern Munich in the last four.
However, the Brazilians eased past them with a 2-0 win to set up a tie in the final with either Chelsea or Al Hilal – who face off on Wednesday evening.
With Mosimane and Ahly now battling for the same medal, he admits it’s a tough one to digest but another learning curve for the African champions.
“We hoped to be in a better position than last year, but we’re in the same position that we were at this stage in the semi-finals last year,” he said in the post-match press conference.
“Coincidently, the same score. That really means that we have to improve, we haven’t improved in that sense.”
Mosimane suggested that they gave the Brazilians’ too much respect and only started making inroads in attack after going a man down in the second half.
“We let ourselves down with the red card, that was the time when we had momentum, hoping we can get a goal and we looked like we’re scoring, even though we had the ball off the post and I don’t know, looked like a penalty.
“I can’t say, if VAR says it’s not a penalty then we have to respect that. We started to play stronger after conceding a goal but what can we do? We played a good team, quality and they were stronger and fresher.
“The last game they played I think was on the second and we played two, three days back – you could see the difference in intensity but we played well in the second half, in patches. Not all the time.”
The three-time Champions League winner also denied that the players who featured for Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations that ended 48 hours prior to their game – before travelling from Cameroon to the United Arab Emirates were not of use to their cause.
“You can’t say the players who came from the national team didn’t help, we need to be humble and appreciate, even Sherif played well when he came in – we had a little bit of hope up front, to be honest,” he explained.
“Disappointed with Ayman and the red card I think he knows himself as a captain, he leaves us with no hope at 10 vs 11, and 2-0 against Palmeiras. A little bit of lack of discipline with him there, I’m not happy with him.”
Ahly will play their third-place tie on Saturday at 15h00 with the opposition to be determined this evening.
