The Botola Pro table-toppers last night defeated Al Ahly of Egypt in yet another blockbuster CAF Champions League final at the Stade Mohamed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco. Al Ahly who have made it to the final three times in a row, and had won the 2020 and 2021 editions were last night refuted by the Moroccan outfit Wydad AC. The triumph over Al Ahly means Wydad AC has now won the most prestigious club trophy in Africa three times, winning in 1992 and 2017.
Pitso Mosimane, 57, has guided Al Ahly to three CAF Champions League finals since joining the Red Devils in 2020 from Mamelodi Sundown of South Africa, where he also has decorated himself as one of the best managers in the league. Regardless of the defeat last night, Pitso Mosimane arguably is the best manager in Africa.
Al Ahly who are known to be the most successful club in the CAF Champions League-winning ten of the trophies, the most by any club that has made the CAF CL final three times in a row on two occasions. They won all the three on the first occasion, and were denied an opportunity to replicate the same.
In the match review:
Al Ahly were down by 1-0 just 15 minutes into the game courtesy of a goal from Zouheir El Moutaraji. Despite controlling most possession by 66% as against Wydad of 34%, Al Ahly’s defence was porous and Zouheir El Moutaraji struck again 3 minutes into the second half. It was at this point that Pitso Mosimane resorted to making two changes to get his boys back lively into the game, but Wydad was much for them to penetrate.
Zouheir El Moutaraji who has not been available in the previous three matches for Wydad bags the man of the match award, scoring two in the final. He has only made 10 appearances for Wydad this season, with 2 goals.
Pitso Mosimane after the final in a press conference said:
“We had our chances, Percy had his one-on-one with the goalkeeper. If he scored that, it would’ve been different,” he said after the match.
“[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.”
