Al Ahly set sights on bronze medal after losing out on Club World Cup final place

Al Ahly forward Taher Mohamed has urged his teammates to use their “very painful” semi-final defeat to take home bronze at the Fifa Club World Cup on Friday.

The African champions, chasing a first final appearance in their history, were beaten 2-0 by Fluminense in a gripping last-four encounter in Jeddah on Monday night.

Participating in the Club World Cup for a ninth time, Ahly spurned numerous chances in the match at King Abdullah Sports City and were eventually outdone by Jhon Arias’ 71st-minute penalty and John Kennedy’s strike one minute from time.

In losing, Ahly missed out on the final for a fourth successive year. The Egyptian club now face in Friday’s play-off the winners of Tuesday’s other semi-final between Manchester City and Urawa Red Diamonds.

Speaking immediately after the Fluminense defeat, Mohamed told The National: “It’s very painful but this is football; you give everything on the pitch – that’s what we did today – but we just didn’t score in the first half.

“We had really good chances; we could have scored one or two goals at least. If we scored in the first half, the game would have completely changed.”

Ahly set up the semi-final with the recent Copa Libertadores winners by defeating hosts Al Ittihad last Friday. As South American champions, Fluminense entered the competition at the semi-final stage.

Mohamed, a second-half substitute for Ahly on Monday night, believed that ultimately proved the difference between the two sides.

“They didn’t play any games in the tournament – this is their first game – and we played a big game against Al Ittihad,” he said. “So that’s what happened at the end of the game: we lost concentration, we were so tired in the end. But that’s part of the game.

“But we’re still