Mosimane: We Have the Spirit to Win

Pitso Mosimane, Al Ahly’s football first team head coach, spoke on Friday in the pre-match press conference of our game against Raja of Casablanca in the first leg of the CAF Champions League quarter-finals.

In his pre-match press conference, Mosimane conveyed his thoughts on the game and gave his opinion on the fact that Al Ahly will be playing the second leg away from home.

“We are now entering the difficult phase of the tournament. The easy part [group stage and preliminary rounds] is now something of the past.” 

“We will play against a tough team like Raja, who were able to be at the top of their group. Also, playing against Morrocan teams isn’t easy.”

“I will not talk about any tactics today. I might start tomorrow with a different formation. That’s football.”

“As for playing in the second leg in Morocco, we have to concentrate only on the pitch and avoid being distracted with things from outside the pitch. If you do your job on the pitch, you have more chances to win no matter how many Raja fans attend the game.”

“We miss Akram, Ammar and all of our injured players. We have a lot of injuries now. However, we cannot make an excuse out of that. We played the Club World Cup without 9 players. We are used to that.”

“I’ll see today in the pre-match training session who is fit to participate in Saturday’s game. We are not in our best shape now in terms of injuries but we have the spirit to win.”