Preview: Al Ahly vs. Palmeiras | Club World Cup third-place playoff
10:00 ET Canada-USA | 17:00 Cairo Local Time
Venue: Education City Stadium, Qatar
Al Ahly and Palmeiras will look to end their Club World Cup campaign on a high on Thursday afternoon when they square off in the third-place playoff.
Like us on Facebook & follow us on Twitter to receive all the live games alerts or subscribe to our web browser notifecations. You can also download our Andriod App here on Google PlayWhile Al Ahly lost out to tournament favorites Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, Palmeiras suffered a surprise defeat to Mexican side Tigres.
Despite conceding twice in their defeat to Bayern, Al Ahly have kept nine clean sheets from their last 12 encounters in all competitions.
Pitso Mosimane would have been pleased with his team’s performance against the Champions League winners, believing that it was simply a step too far against superior opposition.
However, they offered enough in that game to suggest that they are capable of getting the better of Palmeiras on Thursday, particularly with the added carrot of a third-placed finish.
Al Ahly have only achieved that feat once in six attempts, something which occurred back in 2006 when they got the better of Club America.
That said, the Egyptian team have lost their previous two fixtures against Brazilian opposition at this tournament.
Al Ahly will miss a few key players against Palmeiras
Ali Maaloul out due to an injury
Ali Maaloul is expected to miss out for Al Ahly after his early withdrawal against Bayern three days ago.
Kahraba & El-Shahat out of the safety Bubble!
Midfielder Hussein el-Shahat and winger Mahmoud Kahraba will miss the match against Brazilian club Palmeiras on Thursday for breaching coronavirus regulations by greeting someone outside of the team’s medical bubble.
“FIFA prohibits Al-Shahat and Kahraba from participating in the match for the third and fourth place due to their non-compliance with the precautionary measures,” Al Ahly confirmed in a statement on Twitter.
Videos emerged on social media of the two players shaking hands with Aboutrika after the Bayern Munich game, which took place in the Qatari city of Al-Rayyan.
Al Ahly Club also fined the players 300K each for disobeying the FIFA rules and not following the safety measurements put in place.
Yasser Ibrahim is likely to take his place in the team, while Marwan Mohsen and Walter Bwalya are pushing for opportunities in the final third.
Palmeiras
On the back of their success in the Copa Libertadores last month, Palmeiras were regarded as favourites to meet Bayern in this year’s final.
However, a second-half penalty from Andre-Pierre Gignac earned Tigres a famous 1-0 win on Monday, ending Palmeiras’ hopes of lifting the trophy on their first appearance in the competition.
While their defeat to the Mexican side does not necessarily take the edge off their previous triumphs, there is no doubt that it is a missed opportunity.
Abel Ferreira must now find a way to lift his group of players, whose only win in six matches is their victory over Santos in the Copa Libertadores final.
The Brazilian giants also failed to score more than one goal in any of those fixtures, a statistic that does not play into their favour ahead of a game with Al Ahly.
