Koller bemoans Al Ahly's wastefulness

by Staff Reporter

Monday Feb 27, 2023. 15:56

Al Ahly head coach Marcel Koller expressed his disappointment after seeing his held to a 2-2 draw by Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League on Saturday.

The Red Eagles found themselves trailing to Peter Shalulile’s 34th-minute opener at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo but fought back to take the lead through goals from Mohamed Abdelmonem (59′) and Hussein El Shahat (74′).

However, Thapelo Morena equalised 10 minutes from time to deny the 10-time African champions a first win in Group B and they have now collected just one point from their opening two matches.

The Egyptian giants missed numerous chances against Sundowns and Koller bemoaned their wastefulness in front of goal, while he felt Morena’s goal could have been prevented.

“Very disappointed with the result. We simply waste a lot of chances,” the Swiss tactician said after the matchday-3 encounter.

“We went a goal behind and then we were able to turn the game around, but we conceded an unnecessary goal in the end.”

One of many opportunities passed up by the hosts came in the 51st minute when Mohamed Hany’s penalty was saved by Ronwen Williams.

“Our opponents watch our games, and if the same player continues to take all of our penalties, their goalkeepers will be able to predict the ball’s direction,” Koller added.

“Before every game, I choose three penalty takers and tell them that whoever feels up for it must be the one to take it.

“Mohamed Hany never missed a penalty in training and has wonderful technique, but as we all saw, training is different from competitive games.

“But it’s also not the first penalty we missed this season. Ali Maaloul has missed in the past as well as Mohamed Magdy Afsha.”