The Cairo giants dramatically concluded their campaign at the prestigious tournament, holding Portuguese powerhouse Porto to an exhilarating 4-4 draw in their final group stage match at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
However, Ahly and Port bid farewell to the tournament as Inter Miami and Palmeiras finished first and second place in their group stage.
Ahram Online collected post-match reactions from Ahly players:
Goalkeeper Mohamed El Shennawy
“We apologize. We wanted to please all of you today and achieve victory. We apologize from the bottom of our hearts. You are always behind us, in every second and every game.”
“Our relationship isn’t just about football. We have one soul, one heart, and one target.”
The Egyptian international promised the supporters a new era with better achievements, stressing that players will fight to please the fans.
Midfielder Magdi Afsha
“We weren’t lucky enough in the first game against Inter Miami and today against Porto. We wasted several scoring chances. We could have played other games with more rest if we had won in the opening game. Maybe other teams did more effort than us.”
“We are sad, and I know that fans wanted to see us in the quarterfinals. I apologize to everyone for what happened in previous games.”
“We scored four goals against Porto and I think we could have scored 10 goals with the wasted chances. For me the worst thing for me is elimination from the tournament.”
Right-back Mohamed Hani
“I know that fans aren’t satisfied and that the performance wasn’t the best one in the first two games, but today the majority of players did their best and we reached the goal a lot but we weren’t lucky.”
“We were supposed to win with a bigger result, but this is football. This is a big lesson for us.
“Fans supported us a lot, and that was the first chance for several new players to play together, and also for the new coach, who needs more time to adapt.”
Winger Hussein El-Shahat
“We were fully concentrated and wanted to win to reconcile our fans. We played with hope to qualify till the last minute.”
“We wasted a lot of scoring chances, and we weren’t lucky in other chances.”
Find more details on group standings, match schedules, and competition statistics
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