Morocco Wydad won the African Champions League title after beating Egypt’s Al Ahli 2-0 in a match that took place at the Mohammed V Stadium in the Moroccan capital of Casablanca. Wydad coach Waleed Regragui played a 4-1-4-1 game with Mbenza as the clear vanguard, while Al-Ahly coach Betso Mosimane played a 4-3-3 game with the trio of Thao, El Shahat and Abdelkader. in the line of attack.
Wydad manager Waleed Rehraki adopted a defensive demeanor from the start, adopting a 4-1-4-1 method, and tried to impose his style of play based on high midfield pressure to ensure that danger was removed from his goal first and quickly reach the Al-Ahly second area. On the other hand, Al Ahly manager Pitso Musimani used the traditional 4-3-3 formation, preferring to be careful in the game, take his time and not go on rash adventures, which Wydad made the best use of after scoring a goal. progress goal with a special kick through his player Zuhair Martaji in the 15th minute.
Al Ahly needed to react quickly, so they turned to higher defense and relied on pressing at the Vidad stadium in addition to Al Azhar’s progress, and this forced the Moroccan team to retreat somewhat to absorb the expected surge. Egyptian team. Wydad seemed to be well organized defensively as the lines were close, especially the defensive line and midfield, making it difficult for Al Ahly to create real chances as the minutes of the first half went by without any change in the result.
Late replacements don’t work
At the start of the first half, Wydad bet on counter-attacks and closed the defensive area and once again managed to stun Al-Ahly with an early goal in the 48th minute thanks to the same player who scored the first goal after a perfect counter-attack. this reflected greater problems in the defense of Al-Ahly. In light of the Egyptian side’s inability to respond to a clear loss in midfield, the Moroccan side stepped up their presence in midfield and gave Al Ahly no chance to catch their breath to build up attacks and get back into the match atmosphere.
Faced with this situation, Musimani stepped in and made two changes, removing El Shahat and Abdel Kader and bringing in Afsha and Mohamed Sharif to develop a new 4-4-2 plan and compete in midfield. But the team did not improve much in the offensive part, as confusion and dispersal became evident with the disintegration of the team’s lines, offset by excellent defensive discipline and a good distribution of Wydad’s players. A new intervention was needed for Musimani, albeit belatedly, and Hamdi Fathi and Muhammad Khani were taken out and Al-Sulaiya and Salah Mohsen entered and performance improved in the final quarter of an hour with Wydad’s full retreat to protect him. a goal while Al Ahly’s attackers failed to break Wydad’s wall of defense to end the match with Egyptian grief and Moroccan joy.
Source: El Iktisad