Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane feels his side showed real character to secure a 2-1 victory over Al Ittihad Alexandria Club in the Egyptian Premier League.

The Red Eagles returned to winning ways by snatching all three points against Al Ittihad following their 1-0 defeat by Ghazi El Mahalla in their previous league match.

The result moves Ahly to within four points of leaders Zamalek SC, who currently sit on 44 points, but Mosimane’s side have two games in hand over their rivals.

Mosimane says he was impressed with his side’s performance and reserved special praise for the likes of Yasser Ibrahim and Mahmoud Wahid.

‘We had a good game against Al Ittihad. We scored two goals and we were able to add more goals. We played good games in the previous period but we failed to win them, so it is an important victory,’ Mosimane told his club’s official website.

‘When we were 2-0 up, we had much confidence and went forward and scored the third but it was disallowed.

‘Yasser played a good game and we didn’t need to take him out. However, Ayman needed to take some playing time to prepare him for the upcoming decisive matches against Zamalek and Mamelodi Sundowns.

‘The same applies to Hany, he was OK. However, he had two yellow cards previously, so we had to take him out. Marwan and Salah were OK and I was impressed with Wahid’s performance.

‘I took Hussein out to give him some rest and I wanted to do the same with Afsha but Salah Mohsen was injured, so I decided to keep Afsha in the game.

‘Also, Mohamed Sherif did not start against Al Ittihad for technical reasons related to the overwhelming schedule that we are following.

‘Unfortunately, we conceded a goal but thankfully it didn’t affect the overall result of the game.

‘Finally, we had a very good game tonight. We had a good first half and we were better in the second half and we managed to find cracks in their defence to score two goals.’