With the loss, Ahly’s hopes of keeping up with Zamalek and Pyramids FC in the tight race to retain their Egyptian Premier League title were temporarily dashed.
After 20 rounds, the Red Devils remain third on 40 points, three behind leaders Zamalek, who have a game in hand against ENPPI on Wednesday, and three points behind second-place Pyramids FC, who beat National Bank 1-0 on Monday.
“I won’t search for justifications for the loss. I told the players that the game is very important and also in a decisive time and it was a good chance to put ourselves in a good position before ending the first phase,” the Danish coach said in the press conference after the game.
“I take full responsibility and that what I said to my players. I also protect them,” he added.
After a mediocre performance in a 3-1 win over Arab Contractors on Thursday, Ahly were expected to deliver a stronger performance against Talae El-Geish, but failed to impress again.
On Monday, the title holders produced a sluggish display, failing to capitalize on several defensive errors from the hosts and looking vulnerable whenever the military side pushed forward.
“We delivered a good first half and we had several chances, but we lost a lot of our energy in the second half and we lost solutions,” the coach explained.
“We missed several scoring chances unlike what happened with our opponent. I agree that we have a problem in scoring and also we miss the striker who can convert the scoring chance into a goal,” he added.
Thorup conceded that his team is also suffering at the defensive level, but asked: "Everyone should look themselves in the mirror and determine their own shortcoming to return to winning ways."
Under the league’s current format, the top seven teams advance to a mini-league to determine the champion, while the remaining 14 sides enter a separate competition to decide the four relegation places.
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