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Al Ahly assistant coach, Sami Komsan, says that they struggled against Union Sportive de la Gendarmerie Nationale due to the difficult conditions.
Al Ahly were held to a 1-1 away draw with Niger’s Union Sportive de la Gendarmerie Nationale (USGN) in the first leg of the second preliminary round of the 2021/22 CAF Champions League.
The guests opened scoring through Ali Maaloul less than 20 minutes into the game through a penalty kick.
15 minutes before the full-time whistle, the Nigerien team tied the score through a header follow up, for the game to end in a draw.
The Red Devils got many chances to seal the deal but were unable to take advantage of them and will therefore have impose themselves at home in the second leg.
Komsan admits that the performance wasn’t good but blames it on the difficult conditions in which they had to play the game in and the fact that they were missing many players.
READ: Mosimane calls out CAF for lack of VAR usage after USGN draw
“We came here to win. The draw is not the best result, but we still have a game in Cairo to book our ticket to the group stage and continue our journey towards our third straight title in the competition,” Komsan told Al Ahly’s official website.
“We wanted to win but in the end, it is a good result. We could have won the game if we converted the chances into goals. We were also denied a clear penalty in the second half.
“We are not making excuses, but we faced a lot of difficult circumstances that led to tonight’s draw. We missed many key players and we did not have many options in the front line.
“Also, the hot weather and the bad condition of the pitch affected our performance.
“Our performance will be much better in the next games as we will be able to rely on the injured players and the new signings,” he concluded.
Al Ahly will host USGN in the second leg next Saturday, October 23 in the Al Ahly We Al Salam stadium. They will need to win by any result in order to secure their spot in the group stage
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