* The other African representatives, Esperance de Tunis of Tunisia, lost 0-2 to Brazilian club, Flamengo in their Group D
* While Liam Delap made his debut as Chelsea won their FIFA Club World Cup opener beating Los Angeles FC 2-0
Maravi Express
After playing out a 0-0 draw with host city side, Inter Miami — led by Argentine legend Messi Lionel — Egypt’s and African champions Al Ahly tie on one point with all Group A FIFA Club World Cup following another goalless draw between Portugal’s Port and Spanish side SE Palmeiras.
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The result leaves them chasing a win next up against SE Palmeiras on Thursday, June 19 and a report by FIFA Media says at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium “both sides carved out plenty of goal scoring opportunities in what was, at times, an end-to-end affair”.
“The Cairo-based outfit, who had the better of things in the first half, were awarded a penalty shortly before the break — however, Trezeguet’s spot kick was saved and the hosts were spared a half-time deficit.
“After the resumption, the tables turned, with the MLS side generating the better chances. However, everything they threw at Mohamed El Shenawy, the veteran keeper proved more than capable of stopping.”
Al Ahly’s Palestinian striker Wessam Abou Ali, who had a goal ruled out for offside, expressed his disappointment with the result, claiming that Al Ahly’s missed chances in the first half cost them a shot at bagging maximum points.
“I’m really disappointed we didn’t take three points from the match,” he is quoted as saying by FIFA Media. “With all due respect to Inter Miami, who have a lot of great players, we could have scored three or four goals in the first half. Unfortunately, we didn’t take our chances to get the win.
“Our fans were amazing,” he added. “This is a really big club and with such a large number of fans here to support Al Ahly, that really gave us a boost during the match, which we could have won.”
“As for our next match, against Palmeiras, we know they are going to be tough. We only took one point away today, but we wanted to get all three. We’re going to work hard to prepare, and hopefully luck will be on our side in our next games.”
New head coach, Jose Riveiro, taking charge of his first competitive match with the team, also rued the chances his team missed in the first half — explaining their drop in performance after the break.
New head coach, Jose Riveiro
“We made some mistakes and missed some good chances today. If we’d been able to score some of them, the game would have been totally different.”
“We were in control in the first half, but our performance dipped a bit in the second, when we had some issues in transition and misplaced a few passes. However, there are plenty of positives to take away from the match, as well as a few areas we know we can improve.”
“This was my first official match in charge of the side, and obviously it’s very different to playing in Egypt. I’m very happy to be here, representing Al Ahly. Hopefully, things will go our way in our next match.”
The report further says one of the stars for the CAF Champions League winners, was veteran goalkeeper El Shenawy, who argued that it was a well-earned point in trying conditions.
“Inter Miami are a great side. In the first half, we did what we needed to and were the better side, but we dropped off a bit in the second half because we knew they’d come out strongly after the break. The humidity got to us a bit too, but at least we got a draw in the end.”
The other African representatives, Esperance de Tunis of Tunisia, lost 0-2 to Brazilian club, Flamengo in their Group D opener in Philadelphia on Monday thanks to goals from Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Luiz Araujo.
Esperance du Tunis
The Brazilian side are reported to have dominated from start to finish on a chilly evening at a half-empty Lincoln Financial Field, with Esperance managing only two attempts on goal.
Flamengo opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Guillermo Varela surged down the right and delivered a pinpoint cross to Luiz Araujo, who cushioned the ball into the path of Arrascaeta to fire home.
Esperance struggled to get a foothold on the match, with Flamengo enjoying 80% possession, but they enjoyed their best moments after the break with Youcef Belaili providing a rare spark.
Flamengo’s Luiz Araujo celebrates after scoring against Esparance
After curling a shot narrowly wide in the 63rd minute, Belaili forced Flamengo goalkeeper Augustin Rossi into a sharp save with a close-range effort five minutes later. However, Flamengo quickly reasserted control to silence the lively Tunisian support behind the south goal and in the 70th minute they doubled their lead through Araujo.
Meanwhile, Liam Delap made his debut as Chelsea won their FIFA Club World Cup opener beating Los Angeles FC 2-0 — in a that the media described as a laboured performance by Chelsea, “but their finishing quality sealed victory with striker Delap impressing as a 64th-minute substitute following his £30m move from Ipswich this month.
Liam Delap
The Los Angeles FC went into the match as underdogs, who featured World Cup-winning French duo Olivier Giroud and Hugo Lloris and caused problems but could not take chances which fell to Denis Bouanga and substitute David Martinez.
“Chelsea have a very exciting new attacker if Delap’s debut is anything to go by,” reports BBC Sport. “The England Under-21s forward, who withdrew from Lee Carsley’s international squad to play in the Club World Cup, picked up the ball 30 yards from goal and drove at LAFC captain Aaron Long, almost setting up Fernandez in the process.
“Just moments later his chipped cross was tapped home by the midfielder, while he almost provided another assist after dribbling 25 yards in his final action of the game.”
Chelsea take on Brazilian side Flamengo in Philadelphia on Friday while Los Angeles FC face Esperance de Tunis in Nashville with the culmination of Group D being the following Tuesday, when Chelsea play Esperance de Tunis and Los Angeles FC meeting Flamengo.—Content by FIFA Media & BBC Sport; edited by Maravi Express
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