Al Ahly Face Palmeiras in Bronze Medal Game
Our players put on a heroic performance against FC Bayern Munich but the European champions managed to win the match 2-0.
Al Ahly will face Brazil's Palmeiras on Thursday in order to decide who will be third and fourth place in the FIFA Club World Cup, held in Qatar from 4-11 February.
The first half started with the Red Eagles being defensively organized, blocking all the attacking attempts of our opponent.
In the 12th minute, Al Ahly’s left-back Ali Maaloul sent a long ball to Taher Mohamed Taher, however, Bayern Munich’s goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was closer and got the ball before Taher.
In the same minute, our goalkeeper, Mohamed El Shenaway, managed to come out of his goal and save the ball before Bayern’s attacking player.
After three minutes, Kahraba shot a ball from the center of the field after seeing Neuer out of his goal; however, Neuer was able to save the ball.
In the 17th minute, Robert Lewandowski’s shot found the target, giving the lead to the FC Bayern Munich.
In the following minutes, both teams exchanged goal-scoring opportunities, yet the score remained unchanged.
With less than 30 minutes into the game, Maaloul was replaced by our defender Yasser Ibrahim, after falling down on the pitch due to picking up an injury.
In the 33rd minute, Al Ahly built the play from the back all the way to our attacking player, Mohamed Magdy Afsha who got the ball and shot it off target.
In the following minutes, El Shenaway put on an amazing performance to keep the score unchanged.
In the 46th minute, the referee blew his whistle to announce the end of the first half.
The second half began with the Red Eagles looking forward to equalizing the score; however, the opponent’s defense managed to block all our attempts.
In the 58th minute, El Shenawy appeared once again to save Muller’s header.
After six minutes, Leroy Sane and Eric Choupo-Moting from FC Bayern Munich entered the match replacing Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller.
A few minutes later, Mohamed Hany and Hussein El Shahaat passed the ball to each other in order to create a goal-scoring chance, but the opponent’s defense managed to intercept the ball.
With only twenty minutes to go three of our players: Aliou Dieng, Salah Mohsen, and Walter Bwalya enter the pitch to replace El Shahaat, Kahraba, and Afsha.
In the following minutes, both teams exchanged several goal-scoring opportunities, but the score remained unchanged.
In the 83rd minute, Al Ahly’s manager Pitso Mosimane made our final substitution in the game replacing Taher with Mohamed Sherif.
After three minutes, Lewandowski’s header, after a cross from Sane, doubled the score for Bayern Munich.
After FC Bayern’s second goal, Sherif received the ball and shot it from a long-range, but Neuer saved it.
In the 90th minute, the referee gave four additional minutes but both teams failed to score. The referee then ended the match to announce FC Bayern Munich’s 2-0 victory.
