Al Ahly deservedly claimed the consolation prize of third place at the FIFA Club World Cup 3-2 on penalties on Thursday evening after a 0-0 draw against Palmeiras in Qatar following the heroics of goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy.
Pitso Mosimane’s men dominated the 90 minutes at Education City Stadium but Mohamed “Afsha” Magdi , Taher Mohamed and Walter Bwalya missed clear cut chances as Weverton made a string of saves.
Al Ahly scored three penalties courtesy of Badr Benoun, Mohamed Hani and Junior Ajayi while Scarpa and Gomez netted for the Brazilian side. However, El Shenawy made two important saves denying Rony and Melo.Amr El-Sulaya and Marwan Mohsen also wasted their efforts but the Cairo giants eventually prevailed to settle for their second bronze medal having finished third in 2006 in Japan.
The Red Devils enjoyed far the better of the chances in an unsurprisingly subdued encounter, a third-place playoff in the competition.
The first chance of the half arrived in the 20th minute, Taher Mohamed floated an inviting cross into the box for Akram Tawfik, but the midfielder failed to keep his header on target.
The record African champions should have went ahead in the 33rd minute, Hamdi Fathi picked out Junior Ajayi from a set-piece but the defender headed over from six-yards out.
That was as good as it got, as far chances were concerned, as Palmeiras were quite content to sit back and let Al Ahly have the ball for most of the half.
While, it was a quiet opening 45 minutes for both goalkeepers, as neither had a save to make.
Palmeiras came out much stronger in the second half and nearly went ahead in the 56th minute but Adriano effort from distance was kept out by the woodwork.
The frame of the goal then denied the Brazilians in the 64th minute, as Luan’s deflected effort off Willian and crashed onto the crossbar.
El Shenawy came to Al Ahly’ rescue in the 83rd minute, the shot-stopper came off his line and pulled off a fine save to keep out Se Paula’s close range effort.
Neither side could break the deadlock in the closing stages, with Ajayi going close once again but he fired into the side-netting, as both sides headed for penalties.
