Yanga hand Al Ahly home ground advantage

Pluijm is for sure relieved of the match outcome as he predicted a hazardous result before the match kicked off on Saturday.

A one-all draw has given visiting National Al Ahly the edge, but given the circumstance in which Yanga were in days before the match, Dutch tactician, Hans Van Pluijm and his charges have been pleased with their performance.
Though the performance was good, the home draw means Yanga now face an uphill battle to qualify for the CAF 2016 Champions League group stages.

With the return leg of this second round encounter set for Sunday in a stadium which Egyptian sides never lose, Yanga will have to win or better the one-all draw to advance to the group stages.

In a post-match interview, coach Hans said that he was pleased with his charges’ performance but unhappy with the result and was quick to the tie is not over yet.

The Dutch tactician never talks about the individual performance of his players but he must have noted the following points in the individual contribution of his squad.

First, if there were awards given then Vicent Bossou deserved the man of the match. The Togolese international was authoritative and commanded his backline well. He read the game well and made at least three life-saving interceptions and tackles that ensured Yanga walked away with their pride intact.

Juma Abdul and Mwinyi Haji were solid defensively as well as against the fast running Amr Gamal and Ramadhan Sobhy. More important, Abdul offered a lot going forward. He outmuscled the Egyptian wingers and set up

With his performance, it is not easy for Nadir Haroub to dislodge him from the starting XI soon. He has more than vindicated the coach’s decision to be trusted with the captain’s arm band.

In the midfield, Thaban Kamusoko was not poor, but in all honest it was an average performance from the Zimbabwean international.

He was slow to make decisions and was disposed of the ball a couple of times. He wasted a chance in the second half as he shot wide and wild at the edge of the 18 yard box.

For Salum Telela, he showed why he only got the chance to start due to Haruna Niyonzima’s suspension. As much he tried to cover all parts of the ground, he offered little going forward. He was guilty of making less thoughtful passes. His work-rate partially compensates for his sloppy passes.

Next to Bossou, Donald Ngoma justified why Yanga had to outsource for his service from Zimbabwe. Ngoma was unfortunate to miss on the score sheet as he kept Al Ahly defenders busy throughout the encounter.

He was not afraid to take the Al Ahly defenders one-on-one. His efforts were noted by the Al Ahly coach, Martin Jol during a post-match interview.

On the other hand Ngoma’s partner of the day, Amissi Tambwe was anonymous in attack. Once again he failed to prove he can dominate a very physical and tactically intelligent defence.

Closely monitored by a physical imposing central defender Ahmed Hegazy, Tambwe was completely missing from the game. His presence till the second half substitution was not felt despite trying as hard as he could.

The biggest surprise of the day was the inclusion of Issoufou Bobacar. The Nigerien international has been a marginal player since joining Yanga in December. This was his first big test playing for Yanga.

He was neither bad nor impressive. He struggled to make incisive runs in the left flank but he made up for his not-so impressive performance with an assist of sort.

His replacement, Simon Msuva offered nothing better. Msuva’s insignificant contribution justified coach Hans van Pluijm decision to start Boubacar on the flanks.

Ahmed Hegazy deflected the ball into his own net as he tried to stop Ngoma from tapping home Boubacar’s cross.