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Pitso expects to be sacked if he doesn't beat Chiefs

Mosimane says he's done with comfort zone

Sihle Ndebele Journalist
Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane will be looking to win his third Caf Champions League title at the expense of Kaizer Chiefs.
Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane will be looking to win his third Caf Champions League title at the expense of Kaizer Chiefs.
Image: Ibraheem Al Omari

Uninhibited Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane appears ready to leave the Egyptian heavyweights in the event of failing to win either the CAF Champions League or the domestic league.

Ahly meet Kaizer Chiefs in the Champions League final at Stade Mohammed V in Morocco on July 17. The Egyptians’ congested fixture programme, stemming from their participation in the Champions League and in the Fifa Club World Cup, is the reason they have six games in hand, occupying the second spot on 45 points, 16 behind leaders Zamalek.

Mosimane has already endeared himself to the Ahly faithful and possibly even to the club’s hierarchy after winning the previous edition of the Champions League, ending their seven-year wait for continental glory.

“Here [at Al Ahly] if you don’t win the Champions League and you don’t win the league, you might as well try and look [elsewhere]. So that’s why I am here, I am on the edge. I am done with comfort zone,’’ Mosimane said in a virtual conference organised by the SA Football Journalists Association yesterday.

Mosimane, who coached local giants Mamelodi Sundowns for eight years before leaving for Ahly in October last year, insinuated at the Brazilians you could be fired if you fail to win the domestic league title.

“Welcome to the real world! I faced that in SA also in terms of the league because I think when you don’t win the league at my former employers (Sundowns) you might face the sack, let’s be honest,’’ Mosimane said.

“I am not sure about the Champions League [that if a coach who fails to win the Champions League can be shown the door at Chloorkop] because Champions League is different, it’s very difficult.’’

Mosimane couldn’t desist from playing mind-games ahead of the final against Amakhosi, labelling his opponents “soldiers and survivors”.

“Those guys (Chiefs) are real soldiers. They get out of trouble when you’ve never thought they will. They don’t care if they have the ball or not, they can suffer in a match... no problem. They suffered against Simba and they survived,’’ Mosimane explained.

“They suffered in Morocco and they survived. They suffered against Wydad and conceded four goals but they eventually survived. So there is tenacity, they’re survivors. They can live in a desert.”

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