Moroccan Wydad coach Mahdi Al-Nafiti acknowledged that his team suffers from a lack of offensive effectiveness before facing Al-Hilal Saudi Arabia in the FIFA Club World Cup held in Morocco tomorrow, Saturday, which witnesses the referee clarifying his decisions through loudspeakers for the first time in history.
The Club World Cup is witnessing a historic amendment approved by FIFA, which allowed the decisions of the video assistant referee (VAR) to be clarified to the fans in the stadium with loudspeakers.
🗺️ Fas'ta düzenlenen FIFA Kulüpler Dünya Kupası'nda oynanan Al Ahly - Auckland City maçının Çinli hakemi Ning Ma bir ilke imza attı.
Bir pozisyonu VAR'da inceledikten sonra verdiği kararı değiştirdi ve kararını değiştirme gerekçesini of tüm tribunlere anlattı.
pic.twitter.com/drjsncOVJ6
— abnakruf (@abnakruf) February 3, 2023
The new mechanism was applied for the first time in the history of the game at Tangier Stadium, last Wednesday, in the opening match between Al-Ahly of Egypt and New Zealand's Auckland City, when Chinese referee "Ma Ning" explained the reasons for refusing to award a penalty kick in favor of Al-Ahly, with Adam Mitchell of Auckland City.
After returning to the VAR technique … the match referee cancels the penalty kick awarded to Al-Ahly and announces the red card to the Auckland City player.# Club World Cup# Al-Ahly_Auckland_City |
#SSC pic.twitter.com/zTsrANQjmp
- Saudi Sports Company SSC (@ssc_sports) February 1, 2023
Al-Nafiti, who took over the leadership to succeed Hussein Amouta on the second day of 2023, said that the confrontation at Moulay Abdallah Stadium in Rabat will not be easy, with the difference in the level of Al-Hilal, the Asian champion, from the rest of the Moroccan clubs.
The Tunisian coach confirmed to reporters that he is working to improve offensive performance and treat a "negative point" related to the effectiveness of the wings, as he scored 3 goals in the last 5 matches in the local league.
Al-Nafiti explained, "I watched matches for Al-Hilal via video. The situation will be different from facing the Moroccan teams that I respect and faced in the league, and difficulties were imposed on us, and we achieved small victories against them, and until we tied with Al-Fateh in the last match."
The former Spanish Levante coach added, "We must be at the peak of readiness and focus to hold on to our chances of winning, and play with the Moroccan and Wada club hearts, especially since we will play among our fans, and this will help the players to do their best."
Wydad hopes that playmaker Ayman Al-Hassouni will recover after being injured in training, as he is considered a pillar of Al-Nafiti's plan.
Wydad's strength lies in his defensive toughness, as he did not concede any goal in the last 6 league matches, and he regained the efforts of Algerian defender Al-Hussein Ben Ayada after his return from injury.
The winner of the Arab confrontation will meet Brazilian Flamengo in the semi-finals, while Spanish Real Madrid awaits the winner of the Egyptian Al-Ahly match and the American Seattle Sounders.