French manager Henri Michel opened fire on Zamalek's players following the elimination from the Arab Champions League (ACL) at the hands of Jordanian side Al-Faisali. Zamalek, who held Faisali to a goalless draw in first-leg in Amman, slumped to a surprise 2-1 defeat in Cairo on Tuesday to exit the competition from the semi-finals. The defeat only came to strengthen the pressure on Michel for adopting the unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation. "Don't blame the tactics, blame the players," said Michel in the post game conference. The Cairo giants found themselves two goals down after only 23 minutes, courtesy of a Khaled Saad strike and an opportunist header from Haider Hussain. "Faisali scored from their first two chances on goal, which practically ended our hopes," said the Frenchman. "There was no one putting pressure on Saad who found no problem scoring the first goal and in the corner-kick that resulted in the second goal, our defense was caught napping. "I'm not going to say anymore, unfortunately these are the players that I have to complete the season with, and I guess any further criticism won't help," he added.
Adnan Hamad Faisali coach Adnan Hamad could not have agreed more with Michel, noting that his players made the best of Zamalek's mistakes. "The plan was to capitalize on Zamalek's recurring defensive mistakes, that's what really gave us the victory," said the Iraqi boss. After their two-goal blitz, Hamad's players contained their Egyptian opponents who seemed highly ineffective until the introduction of Gamal Hamza. "We put a lot of pressure on Zamalek's midfielders, especially on playmaker Hazem Emam who was not able to play his usual game." Hamad was excited about his team's victory, which ensured the Jordanians would feature in the ACL final for the first time. "Any team that beats Zamalek in Cairo deserves to win the ACL title," said an ecstatic Hamad. Faisali will take on the winner of the other semi-final clash between Ahli Jeddah and ES Setif of Algeria.
