(AFP) - Al-Ahly began the journey to regain the title, which had been absent from its coffers for two seasons, with a valuable victory at the expense of its host Ismaili 1-0, Wednesday, at the Army Stadium in Burj Al Arab, as part of the competitions of the first stage of the Egyptian Football League , which witnessed a deserved victory for the defending champion, Zamalek, over Guest Smouha 2-0.
Al-Ahly owes the victory to the newcomer from Ceramica Cleopatra, striker Shadi Hussein, who scored the only goal in the 73rd minute.
The referee expelled Al-Ahly player Taher Muhammad Taher for deliberate roughness with Muhammad Hashem (90 + 3).
In the first half, Al-Ahly players resorted to shooting due to the difficulty of penetrating the defense of the landowners, so Mohamed Sharif hit a ball that passed next to the left post of Mohamed Fawzi’s goal (24).
Sherif was alone, after a through pass from Ahmed Abdel Qader, which he hit powerfully, and hit Muhammad Hashem’s foot and went out to a corner (31), then two minutes later a shot from Taher from the edge of the penalty area, Fawzi pushed it away to a corner, so that the latter continued his brilliance in Al-Zud from his own goal by blocking a Brazilian Bruno Savio’s shot. (47).
Al-Ahly translated his pressing attack in the second half into a first goal after several passes, and the ball reached substitute Karim Fouad, who passed it to the uncensored, the other substitute, Shadi Hussein, who fired it into the empty goal of his goalkeeper (73).
Ismaili failed to equalize, while Al-Ahly's counter-attacks posed a threat to his own goal, but his goalkeeper Fawzi saved Savio's two attempts (80 and 82).
Zamalek, the defending champion, achieved a deserved victory over its guest, Smouha, at the Arab Contractors Stadium.
Zamalek opened the scoring through friendly fire, thanks to Smouha defender Sherif Reda by mistake (79), before Beninese substitute Samson Akinola added the second (90 + 5).
Zamalek relied on counter-attacks by Tunisian Saif Al-Din Al-Jaziri and Ahmed Sayed “Zizou”, while Hussein Faisal’s movements and passes in the depth of Zamalek’s defense, and El-Gheni’s shots by Elia Sella, constituted a danger to Mohamed Awad’s goal.
Moroccan Zakaria Al-Wardi, who was free from control, almost put Zamalek in the lead, taking advantage of Sayed Abdullah’s “Neymar” cross, around which a header crossed Al-Hani Suleiman’s crossbar (42), while Awad made a mistake in getting out of his goal to push the cross from the Nigerian friend of Ebola and the defense dispersed it (45). Mohamed Nagy sent a perfect cross, which was hit by Ebola, which bounced back from Hossam Abdel Majeed to the follower. A silt hit the crossbar and the defense dispersed it (57).
Zamalek's performance improved due to the changes of its Portuguese coach, Josevaldo Ferreira. The substitute, in front of Ashour, hit a ball that passed near the right post of Al-Hani's goal (68), before the scoring opened in the 79th minute via a shot by substitute Mahmoud Abdel Razek "Shikabala" from inside the penalty area. Sherif Reda tried He pushed it off the line, but it slotted in.
Akinola added the second goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, after Ahmed Shousha made a mistake in pushing the ball away from his own goal, so Al-Benini snatched it and hit it to the right of goalkeeper Suleiman.
Pyramids, the runners-up of the last edition, fell into a positive tie trap with its host, Enppi, 1-1.
Pyramids advanced through Mustafa Fathi (20), and Adel Enppi, the Tunisian Rafik Kabo (58).