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The South African tactician emulated legendary Portuguese coach Manuel José de Jesús, who led the Red Devils to third place in 2006.
Pitso Mosimane guided Al Ahly to a 3-2 win over Brazilian giant Palmeiras SC on penalties following a 0-0 draw in the playoff match for third place at the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup on Thursday in the evening.
The two teams could not find the back of the net in regulation time at the 2022 FIFA World Cup venue, Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar.
The Red Devils were looking to end their Club World Cup campaign with a victory after losing 2-0 to European and German champions Bayern Munich in a semi-final match on Monday.
Mosimane had to make changes to the starting lineup that faced Bayern due to the absence of injured defender Ali Maaloul and the sanctioned pair of Mahmoud Kahraba and Hussein El Shahat.
Yasser Ibrahim replaced Maaloul at the left back position, while Akram Tawfik and Walter Bwalya returned to the Red Devils starting lineup.
Al Ahly pressed Palmeiras high up on the field and they were looking for game balls behind the Big Green defense, but goalkeeper Weverton was always on the alert.
Amr El-Sulaya couldn’t get the end of a direct pass as Weverton rushed out to collect the ball and the 33-year-old stopper also picked up a defense-splitting pass that was intended for Taher Mohamed.
The Red Devils should have opened the scoring after a good job from Bwalya, who cut the ball off Felipe Melo on the edge of the area and the fumble fell to El-Sulaya.
El-Sulaya then controlled the ball well, before dribbling past his marker, but the 31-year-old playmaker shot wide of the goal and only Weverton outscored Palmeiras’ posts.
It was Palmeiras, who finished the first half the stronger of the two teams with Al Ahly goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy forced to make two good saves to deny Rony and Luiz Adriano.
Al Ahly struggled to create chances in the early stages of the second half and Mosimane introduced an offensive-minded duo of Junior Ajayi and Mohamed Sherif at the hour mark.
Ajayi thought he had opened the scoring when he shot home on the rebound after Weverton parried an acrobatic kick from El-Sulaya on his way.
However, the goal was disallowed for offside and the African champions continued to launch attacks. Mosimane introduced forward Marwan Mohsen and midfielder Aliou Dieng.
Both teams pressed for a late game-winning goal in the later stages of the game, but it never came and the match ended in a 0-0 draw followed by a penalty shoot-out.
Al Ahly won 3-2 on penalties against the South American champion with Nigerian international Ajayi scoring the Red Devils’ last penalty.
The victory saw Al Ahly match his best result in world competition having also finished third in the 2006 tournament in Japan.
