Ahmed Abdel Aziz, the technical director of Smouha, spoke about his team's defeat against Al-Ahly in the Egyptian Premier League matches.
Al-Ahly secured a 1-0 victory over Smouha in yesterday's match, which took place in the third round of the Egyptian League.
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Ahmed Abdel Aziz stated in interviews on Al-Nahar Channel: "There are circumstances governing us at Smouha Club that force us to reduce the budget every season, and this season's budget is lower than in previous seasons."
He added: "We had to let go of more than one important player in the team, but we still have 7 or 8 players remaining from last season's squad."
He continued: "The draw placed us in a difficult position, and the start of the league was challenging. We performed well defensively against Al-Ahly and in terms of organization, but we were significantly lacking offensively. Facing Al-Ahly, we are aware of their danger sources and studied them thoroughly; therefore, for most of the time, we played an offensive-defensive match."
He went on: "Al-Ahly had three or four attacking strategies that their coach worked on, and we studied those well. Marwan Attia is an important player for Al-Ahly; he provides great balance and always resolves difficult situations for anyone at any time."
He concluded: "Yasser Ibrahim's shot involved considerable luck and went into a difficult spot. We exerted tremendous effort, and from my perspective, Al-Ahly is a giant club with strong players. However, Al-Ahly did not reach the expected number of opportunities or create the volume of chances they should have; they should have had far more solutions. Al-Ahly's chances were not numerous nor did they amount to clear-cut opportunities, except for Taher Mohamed Taher's shot that hit the post. The solutions at Al-Ahly were individualistic."
