Al Ahly inspired by national team’s entry to African Cup of Nations final

Al Ahly centre-back Ramy Rabia believes his side can take inspiration from the Egyptian national team’s performance to reach the African Cup of Nations final.

The team meet Mexico’s Monterrey on match day two of the Fifa Club World Cup at Al Nahyan stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

“We watched our national team’s victory over Cameroon in the semi-finals and that has given every player in our squad a shot in the arm ahead of our opening match in the Club World Cup,” Rabia said at the prematch conference on Friday.

“Not only that, Ahly enter every competition with the objective of winning, and we want to be in the final of this championship. Of course every game is tough at this level but we are confident.”

Ahly has six of their players on national duty at the African Cup of Nations but Rabia insisted that doesn’t make their team any weaker, even though they will miss their services in Abu Dhabi.

“Obviously it’s the best players that get picked for the national team and we certainly are going to feel their absence, but having said that, we will deploy all our efforts to win all our matches in this competition,” Rabia said.

Samy Elsoudany, assistant to Ahly’s Cameroonian manager Pitso Mosimane, who is expected to be back on match day after recovering from Covid-19, said that aside from the players on national duty, they also had a few injury concerns.

“We have travelled with a few injured players but at Ahly, we have faith on the entire squad even as some of them are playing in this competition for the first time,” Elsoudany said.

Monterrey head coach Javier Aguirre (R) before the game against Al Ahly in the Fifa Club World Cup UAE 2021 at Al Nayan Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The National

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