Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane has stated he does not care about refereeing controversies ahead of their Caf Champions League quarter-final second leg showdown in Morocco at the Mohamed V Stadium on Friday night.
In the first leg, Raja lost 2-1 but questioned the decisions made by the referee. The Moroccan side, after laying down their ground in disputing the refereeing decisions, went ahead and called for a Caf inquiry.
Mosimane, though, is focused on the mammoth task at hand.
"I will only focus on the football being played, and I don’t care about refereeing controversies. I am certainly happy we have VAR," Mosimane said, according to KingFut.
"I hope that the technology will be used reliably and even be implemented in the group stages of the competition."
The South African tactician revealed he is confident of a win away from home but warned the challenge will not be easy.
"We expect the game to be a tough one, as we will be playing against an experienced team with great history. Therefore, we are fully concentrated on the game," Mosimane said, as quoted by the club’s website.
"We were able to defeat Raja in the Caf Super Cup and in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. We will be looking forward to defeating them tomorrow and qualifying for the next round.
"Of course, we will be competing against them on the pitch, but that doesn’t affect the strong relationship between both teams off the pitch."
The former Mamelodi Sundowns coach also gave injury updates: "We will be missing several key players in the game due to injury," he added.
"Badr Benoun is one of those key players who is very beneficial to the team but won’t be able to play. However, that’s part of football and we will do our best with those who are available to play in order to qualify for the next round."
On his part, goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy is confident of a better result against their quarter-final rivals.
"We’ve been preparing well for the game and we hope to be at our best performance in order to qualify for the next round," the Egyptian said.
"Moreover, we’ve been talking to each other in the build-up to the game about the importance of this match. I believe we are capable to achieve our goal from the game, despite the fact that we expect it to be a tough one against a big team like Raja."
"Finally, we came early to Morroco in order to adapt to the conditions here and feel the atmosphere of the game.
"We are not afraid of playing the game in front of Raja fans; in fact, we like to play in such an atmosphere. We are experienced players and enjoy playing in such conditions."