The Egyptian Al-Ahly coach is fighting for a “marginal” achievement despite his exit from the Club World Cup

Palmeiras dedicated the Egyptian Al-Ahly node against Brazilian clubs and reached the FIFA Club World Cup final for the first time in his second participation in the tournament in its new form, which began in 2000, by defeating the African champions 2-0 on Tuesday in the semi-finals at Al Nahyan Stadium in Al Wahda Club in Abu Dhabi.

And the Copa Libertadores champion owes revenge for the past two seasons against Al-Ahly, the African champion, who beat him last year on penalties in the match to determine the third place holder, to Rafael Vega and Dodo, who scored the goals in the 39th and 49th minutes, respectively, of the meeting completed by the Egyptian team with ten players in the last 10 minutes.

With Palmeiras qualifying for the final, where the winner of Wednesday's confrontation between European champion Chelsea and the Asian champion Al-Hilal Saudi Arabia will meet, Al-Ahly's journey to the round of four ended for the fourth time in his eighth participation, after the years 2006, 2012 and 2020.

In the four times he reached the semi-finals, Al-Ahly's career ended in three of them at the hands of a Brazilian team.

In the 2006 edition in Japan, Al-Ahly, the record holder in the number of titles in the African Champions League (10 times), fell against Internacional 1-2 before finishing in third place by defeating Mexican Club America 2-1, and in the 2012 edition in Japan as well. He was knocked out by Corinthians 0-1 before he finished fourth, losing to Mexico's Monterrey 0-2.

Al-Ahly will now be content with competing for the third place, and its South African coach, Pitso Mosimane, stressed, "The need to move forward, there is a medal that we must fight for. We have not lost everything. We must try to get a medal for this (African) continent."

"We have to try harder and come next year in order to get a better result," he added.

With this qualification, Brazil became the record holder in the final matches (8) against Spain (7), hoping to win the title for the first time since 2012 when Corinthians awarded the South American continent its fourth title (all thanks to Brazilian clubs) and the last at the expense of Chelsea 1-0 .

"I've dreamed of it since I was a kid. I've always been a Palmeiras fan... I know we haven't won anything yet, but we've taken a very big step in that direction," revealed the first goal scorer, Vega.

The return of the internationals

. Al-Ahly reached the semi-finals by defeating Monterrey on Saturday 1–0 with a semi-aligned lineup in the absence of its players participating with his country in the African Nations Cup, which concluded on Sunday with Senegal crowning the title for the first time in its history, after defeating the “Pharaohs” on penalties.

Al-Ahly regained its international players Amr Al-Sulayya, Hamdi Fathi, Ayman Ashraf and Muhammad Abdel-Moneim, who returned from loan to Future, and Muhammad Sharif, but only two of them started the match, namely Al-Sulayya in the middle and Ashraf in defense.

Defender Akram Tawfik was absent due to a cruciate ligament injury in the first match of the African Nations Cup against Nigeria, and his goalkeeper, Mohamed El-Shennawy, was absent due to a strain in the hamstring muscle he suffered against Ivory Coast in the quarter-finals.

Midfielder Ammar Hamdi was also missing due to a cruciate ligament rupture in training when the mission arrived in Abu Dhabi, Moroccan defender Badr Bannon due to complications from the Corona virus, and South African striker Percy Tau due to an injury in the Smouha meeting in the Egyptian League Cup.

The two teams did not provide anything at the beginning of the meeting, with a field advantage for Palmeiras, but without a risk to Ali Lotfi's goal, who spent a quiet first half until the 39th minute, when he shook his net from the first real chance for the Brazilian team through Rafael Vega, who broke the offside trap after a through pass in the back Defense from Dodo.

The performance of the Egyptian team improved after the goal and went towards Weverton's goal, but without any danger, except for the "on the fly" shot from the outskirts of the area by Omar Al-Sulayya in stoppage time of this half, and Weverton did not find it difficult to deal with it.

Al-Ahly started the second half by ending the first with a shot from outside the region by Mohamed Magdy “Afsha” that found the Brazilian goalkeeper (46) on its way. Palmeiras responded harshly, adding the second goal after an elaborate attack and advancing from the right side of Dodo after a pass from Vega, so he penetrated the area. Before hitting a powerful ball from a narrow angle into the Egyptian net (49).

The African champion tried to remedy the situation before it was too late and got the chance to reduce the difference with a free kick executed by Ali Maaloul, but it crossed the crossbar a little (52).

A knockout blow by expelling Ashraf,

and Musimani made three substitutions at once, hoping to return to the meeting by introducing Ahmed Abdel Qader, Hamdi Fathi and Hamad Al Sharif instead of Al Sulayya, Rami Rabia and Hussein Al Shahat, respectively (54).

Despite the improvement in the performance of the Egyptian club, he did not take advantage of the few opportunities that came to him, whether it was through Fathi, "Qafsha" or Sherif, and he was very close to receiving the third goal with a shot from outside the goal by Dodo, had it not been for the brilliance of his goalkeeper Lotfi (63).

Al-Ahly thought that he reduced the difference in the 72nd minute through Al-Sharif, but the video assistant referee “VAR” showed that he was offside and the goal was canceled.

Al-Ahly’s task became complicated after the referee appealed to “VAR” to replace the yellow card with the red card, and Ayman Ashraf was expelled 10 minutes before the end due to a severe error from behind on Rooney, which facilitated the task of the Brazilian team to walk the match to safety despite two chances in the last seconds of Overtime for Mohamed Hani was blocked by the goalkeeper, and Walid Suleiman's header bounced off the crossbar.

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