Mohamed Abdelkarim Abdelhady, Assistant Coach of Egypt’s Al Masry, has revealed how his team plotted and earned a 1-1 away draw against Enyimba in Sunday’s CAF Confederation Cup Group D matchday 5 clash at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, Completesports.com reports.
Abdelhady revealed that Al Masry players were equipped with the right techniques and tactics to counter the two-time African champions after carefully studying their biggest win of the campaign — a 4-1 thrashing of Black Bulls in Uyo during a matchday 4 fixture.
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“We respect Enyimba. We know they are a team that can always fight. Before coming, we studied very carefully their biggest win in the competition, the 4-1 victory against Black Bulls, and decided how to approach the game,” Abdelhady, who deputises for Ali Maher at Al Masry in the capacity of General Coach stated during the post-match press conference in Uyo.
“It was a good result for us. We had two outcomes in mind before coming—a win or a draw—and either result would be good for us. Now we have a draw. We could have won if we had not missed a penalty.
“Yes, we have one foot in the quarter-finals with this result, but we’ll go home and prepare for the match against Black Bulls. We have six points and hope to secure more in the last match, so we won’t have to worry about the Zamalek-Enyimba result.”
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Enyimba are currently third in the Group D standings with five points, just one point behind Al Masry, who have six.
The People’s Elephant face an uphill task in their final group game, needing an unlikely win against Zamalek at the Cairo International Stadium while also hoping for an upset victory by Black Bulls over Al Masry at the Port Said Stadium in Egypt.
By Sab Osuji
