Al Ahly’s Pitso Mosimane slams CAF after loss in Champions League final
South African coach Pitso Mosimane was left a ‘bitter’ man yesterday after his side Al Ahly suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca.
The Red Devils lost to Wydad in a CAF Champions League final that wad played at Stade Mohammed V in Morocco on Monday.
It was Zouhair El Moutaraji who struck twice in both halves to ensure Wydad were crowned the new African giants to end the Al Ahly dominance.
The victory saw Wydad win the title for the third time in their football history while the defeat denied the Red Devils their eleventh champions league title.
With the defeat, the Egyptian giants were also denied an opportunity to clinch the prestigious trophy for the third successive time.
Speaking during a post match interview with his club’s media department, Mosimane clearly indicated his team deserved to win the final.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns coach believes his team was the ‘better side’ as compared to their opponents and did not deserve the defeat.
“The better team was the one who lost tonight,” he told the club website.
The 57-year-old gaffer went on to slam the champions league final organizers for electing Morocco as the host nation for the continental trophy grand finale while ‘controversially’ a Moroccan club were also the finalists.
“I do not know how anyone can say the Caf Champions League final was well organized. I think the Moroccans are the only ones who said that,” he added.
The tactician also questioned decisions made by his fellow countryman Victor Gomes who was the referee of the day before he criticized the ball boys.
“The referee took three minutes to replace his watch. Also, the ball boys took a lot of time to bring the balls back to the players, and that was a normal thing to happen, especially that we play at Wydad’s ground. Eventually, it was normal that Wydad win the title.”
However, despite that he dwelt much on criticism, Mosimane also rued his side’s missed chances.
“We had our chances, Percy had his one-on-one with the goalkeeper. If he scored that, it would’ve been different.
“[Mohamed] Sherif had a chance to score. If he scores, it’s different. What I’m happy about, we came here and we played football and in football, you can never say that the better team lost because the one that wins is the one that is a good team.
“But we came here to a neutral venue with 50-50 supporters sharing the stadium and that’s part of the football. I think everybody behind the decision got what he wanted. We move on.”
