Hodoud were beaten by Ahli in Cairo, thanks to a Flavio Amado header, and Al-Ashri said that beating the Red Devils in the Cup few weeks ago caught unwanted attention.

"Of course I take full responsibility for the defeat," Al-Ashri told Modern Sport TV.

"However, some of my players were taken away by the media attention after beating Ahli and reaching the Cup semi-final.

"That's why i had to take some of them off in the second half."

Despite the loss, Ashri considered that his team proved they were no pushovers, as they matched Ahli during large parts of the game.

"In general, I can say we produced a very competitive display.

"The game was more entertaining than the Cairo derby and we could have equalized on more than one occasion."