Written by Lubna Abdullah – Sayed Sidqi
Sunday, February 26, 2023 12:07 PM
Swiss Marcel Koller, the club’s coach, decided Al AhlyHe rearranged the penalty kick takers in his team, after Mohamed Hani missed the penalty kick that was given to the Red Genie in the Sun Downs match in the African Champions League, which ended in a draw with two goals for each team, so Al-Ahly lost two valuable points at home and among its fans.
Tunisian Ali Maaloul, the left back of Al-Ahly, did not come forward to request the ball, and he remained far from the penalty area and did not ask for the ball, although he is considered one of the best kickers in the red team and is specialized in executing penalty kicks, but he missed an influential penalty kick in the Al-Ahly and Brazilian Flamengo match in the Club World Cup.
And Mohamed Magdy “Afsha”, the Al-Ahly playmaker, caused a sensation after he missed a penalty kick in the fatal time of the Future match in the Egyptian League last December 16, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
The penalty kick was enough to score the full match points in the calculated time instead of lost time, but Afsha advanced to implement it despite the presence of Maaloul as well, and the player wasted it recklessly as he hit the ball hard to hit the crossbar and then bounced outside the goal.
Kohler explained Mohamed Hani’s implementation of the penalty kick that Al-Ahly obtained in front of Sun Downs, saying,
“I do not rely on just one player to take penalty kicks. I knew that Sun Downs was following us, so I try to change players so that the opponent does not save our method.”
And he added, “I identified 3 players in order to take penalty kicks, then I told them that the player who feels that he is able to take the kick, let him get the ball from himself.”
Koehler continued, “Mohamed Hani never misses penalties in training..but in the end there is a difference between training and matches, and he is not the only one who missed penalty kicks in Al-Ahly. There are Afshah and Maaloul as well.”
And the Al-Ahly coach added, about the trio that specializes in penalty kicks, “I will not tell you … but yes, Mohamed Hani is one of them.”
