Al Ahly end Club World Cup campaign with third-place finish

Al Ahly concluded their Fifa Club World Cup campaign at the Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday by winning the third-place play-off.

Ahly outclassed Asian champions Al Hilal 4-0 after their opponents were reduced to nine men.

It provided some consolation to Egyptian fans after the national team’s heartbreaking defeat to Senegal in a penalty shootout in the Africa Cup of Nations final last week.

That defeat was followed by Ahly’s defeat to South American champions Palmeiras in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup.

Ahly didn’t take long to open the scoring against Hilal, with Yasser Ibrahim latching on to a free kick from Maloul Ali on eight minutes.

Hilal then suffered a huge blow when Matheus Pereira was given the marching orders in the 14th minute after which Ahly doubled their lead through Yasser again.

The Saudi giants then took another hit when Mohamed Kanno received a red card that turned the game into a 'no contest' with Ahly’s 11 men against Hilal’s nine.

Thereafter, Ahly stretched their lead to 3-0 when Ahmed Abdelkader picked up a pass inside the area and scored from the edge of the left post five minutes before half time.

Amro Elsoulia gave more joy to Egyptian fans when he curled in a right-footer from 25 metres to make it 4-0 on 64 minutes.

The Egyptian side were relentless in attack while their opponents could only try contain the damage.

Ahly had 20 shots at goal against Hilal’s two, and that was not surprising with the numerical advantage the Egyptians enjoyed.

Pitso Mosimane’s men will take the result and their performance as just reward for a long and energy-sapping campaign.

Ahly had six of their players on national duty in Cameroon before they rejoined the squad in Abu Dhabi for the semi-final