Ahly Coach Pitso reacts with sarcasm as Wydad win CAF Champions League

Al Ahly Coach Pitso Mosimane has reacted with sarcasm after his Red Devils team suffered a 2-0 loss to Wydad AC in the CAF Champions League final on Monday night, claiming the CAF officials behind the decision to host the game in Casablanca got what they wanted.

Man of the match, Zouheir El Moutaraji scored both goals for WAC, a long range effort in the 15th minute and a 47th minute strike after the initial shot was parried by Ahly goalie El Shenawy. Despite having only 33% of ball possession, Wydad AC emerged as the more purposeful of the two teams as they had 11 shots at goal, scoring 2 of the 3 shots on target.

On the other hand, Al Ahly displayed profligacy despite dominating 67% of ball possession. The 10-times African champions had 14 shots at goal but could only manage 2 shots on target.

On May 9 during the semi final, CAF announced Casablanca as the venue to host the final, a decision that was likely to favor Wydad AC since the Moroccan side was already in the last four and was a probable candidate for qualification to the Grande Finale.

Also, CAF had initially planned to offer 10,000 tickets to both Al Ahly and Wydad AC and sell 20,000 tickets online to the public. But, Al Ahly released a statement on Sunday, revealing how unfair CAF had been to them after issuing only 2,500 tickets to them.

“In football, you can never say the better team lost because the one that wins is the one that is the good team. We came here to a neutral venue with 50-50 supporters sharing the stadium. That is football. I think, everybody behind the decision got what they wanted, Alhamdulillah,” Mosimane said at a post-match presser.

Al Ahly President El Khatib displayed his anger after the final, as he refused to hug CAF Boss Patrice Motsepe on the podium, moments before the medal and trophy presentation session.

Morocco’s Wydad AC has now won the African Champions League title for a third time following previous triumphs in 1992 against Al Hilal, and in 2017 against Al Ahly.