Riveiro: We must avoid making same mistakes

by Staff Reporter

Monday Jun 16, 2025. 15:00

Al Ahly head coach Jose Riveiro believes they could have beaten Inter Miami at the Club World Cup on Sunday had his team taken their chances in the first half.

The new format of the expanded intercontinental competition kicked off at the weekend as the Red Eagles played out to a 0-0 draw with the Herons at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Both goalkeepers impressed in the match, with Oscar Ustari pulling off a string of fine saves in the opening 45 minutes to keep Riveiro’s side at bay including denying Trezeguet from the penalty spot just before half-time.

It was Mohamed El Shenawy’s turn to shine in the second half as the Egyptian Premier League champions came under increasing pressure, making important saves to keep out Fafa Picault, Lionel Messi and Maximiliano Falcon.

Riveiro admitted he wasn’t comfortable with the way Al Ahly defended after the restart and insists they cannot afford to make the same mistakes against Palmeiras on Thursday.

“It’s a football game; it’s a game of mistakes. I think we had a decent amount of chances in the first half to put the game in a different space,” the Spaniard told DAZN.

“Second half, we were defending a bit lower than what we wanted, and then we had some problems in the transitions as well.

“Now we need to recover. It’s difficult to speak about Palmeiras. We prepare for the game as well as we can. We are going to analyse what happened today in order to try and avoid the same mistakes.”