Al Ahly coach Mosimane reacts after Ajayi’s goalscoring return in Egyptian Premier League

Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane was happy with "key player" Junior Ajayi’s impact after he made a goalscoring return to the Egyptian Premier League in their 2-1 win over El Geish on Sunday.

Ajayi recently recovered from an ankle injury, and he marked his first league match since October 2020 with a brace that led the African champions back to winning ways after last Tuesday's 1-0 loss to Tanzanian champions Simba SC.

After conceding the first goal at the Al Ahly Stadium, the 25-year-old inspired the hosts' comeback with his 32nd-minute equaliser and he later secured maximum points with his 90th-minute winning goal.

The Red Devils remain second on the Premier League table, five points behind leaders Zamalek who have played two matches more than them.

“We need big players to step up in the big matches and that is what happened today from Mohamed El Shenawy. He always delivers when the team needs him,” Mosimane told the club website.

“Ajayi is one of the key players in the team. He just returned from an injury, but he managed to score our two goals in the match.

“We pushed forward to score and I decided to add more strikers. Also, I was aware of the players who were booked when I made the substitutions."

Al Ahly assistant coach, Sami Komsan, also commended Ajayi and described Sunday’s outing at the Al Ahly Stadium as at his best level.

“We were under pressure during the match and the players did many efforts as we needed to get the three points,” Komsan said.

“We faced a strong team with a solid defence. We worked very hard to break the defence and the coach’s instructions improved our performance and helped us to score the winning goal.

“Every big team needs an extraordinary goalkeeper. Mohamed El Shenawy had a perfect game and we are lucky to have him. Also, Junior Ajayi was athis best level tonight.

“Our meeting with Al Ahly’s president captain Mahmoud El Khatib played a big role in supporting the player after the negative result against Simba of Tanzania and the circumstances that surrounded the match.

“We are working on correcting the mistakes and improving the team’s performance.

“The game against AS Vita Club is very important and we are determined to achieve the victory. We faced these circumstances before and we managed to overcome them.”