Ahly was the better side in Friday’s Champions league win over Tanzanian giants Simba according to coach Pitos Mosimane who blamed the dense matches’ schedule for affecting the team’s performance negatively.

The Cairo giants claimed a 1-0 victory over Simba at El Salam Stadium in Cairo as both sides qualify to the Champions League quarter finals.

“Ahly was the better side and we delivered a good game against a strong opponent,” the South African coach said in the press conference after the game.

“We created two other certain chances to score, but the superb performance of their goalkeeper saved the situation,” the coach added.

After losing 1-0 to Simba in Tanzania in the away game, the defending champions Ahly handed their visitors their first group stage defeat.

Ahly will now progress to knock out stage with 11 points, two behind leaders Simba.

Mosimane had to make a few chances to his backline fielding Ahmed “Beckham” Ramadan and Rami Rabia for right back Mohamed Hani and central defender Yasser Ibrahim.

“We gave the chance for some players to cover the absence of their injured teammates and that affected our performance the second half negatively," Mosimane explained.

“We are suffering from the dense matches’ schedule as we need to prepare all our players as we wait strong confrontations especially the league one with Zamalek next week,” the Ahly coach concluded.

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