KAIZER Chiefs head coach Stuart Baxter was left to rue the sending off as his side suffered a heavy defeat in the CAF Champions League final.
Going into the game, Kaizer Chiefs were regarded as underdogs against Al Ahly, but their chances became even slimmer following Happy Mashiane’s red card.
Just seconds before the half-time whistle Mashiane took Akram Tawfik’s legs out with a slide tackle, which he initially received a yellow card for, before the referee upgraded it to red after consulting the VAR.
And Baxter, whose first game in charge of the Chiefs came against Al Ahly, believes that the incident had a huge impact on the final result.
“I thought with the challenges that we’ve had building up to the final, the players did really well,” Baxter told the reporters as per IdiskiTimes.
“The opening of the game, we pressed high, but al Ahly were good with the ball.
“I thought we did that reasonably well, but we had less and less of our attacks.
“We couldn’t follow the plan that we’ve had.
“The red card turned out to be the killer, I had to change the game. The second half they put the gas to the floor, the same time we had the hand brake on.”
