The match witnessed a full hour without goals amid an average performance, but the last half hour was covered in red, and the historical champion of the Egyptian League outperformed the defending champion in the last two seasons, to score from the 61st minute until the counted time instead of the lost hat-trick..
Reasons for red supremacy
- Al-Ahly pressed from the start, taking advantage of the Portuguese Ferreira’s method of retreating to defend and relying on the opponent’s mistakes in building or extracting the ball to launch counterattacks, taking advantage of the speeds and skills of the duo Imam Ashour and Ahmed Sayed “Zizou”, and the red pressure resulted in confusion for the white team, so that Koller’s men succeeded in creating 3 realized opportunities in the half. The first, despite the scarcity of attempts.
- Al-Ahly benefited from a break between the two halves, and completely changed the way he played, to turn the game into penetration from the depths directly, and to allow Zamalek to own the ball to play behind his defenses with rebounds and quick strikes as Ferrera wanted to do, which resulted in the first goal of Mahmoud Abdel Moneim, “Kahraba.”“.
- Zamalek progressed to search for the equalizing goal, which was met with greater offensive ferocity than Al-Ahly club and a desire to settle the match, with the descent of the former Egyptian league scorer, Mohamed Sharif, instead of Kahraba, to activate the offensive side, to succeed in scoring two goals with strong touches directly from inside the penalty area. Goalkeeper Mohamed Awad did not succeed in dealing with it..
- Zamalek continued its negative results in 2023 to remain without any victory, for many reasons, most notably the decline in the level of Coach Ferrera, who made negative changes in the summit match, most notably the participation of Shikabala instead of Saif Al-Jaziri, Sayed Abdullah instead of Muhammad Abdel-Shafi and Mustafa Al-Zanari instead of Amr Al-Sisi..
- Mali Aliou Diang granted great power to the Al-Ahly midfield, and he was a major cause of destroying Zamalek’s attacks and contributing to building Al-Ahly’s attacks, to deserve the award for the title of the match, and the role of his partner in the middle, Hamdi Fathy, who succeeded in making two goals, did not diminish..
An uncertain future
- Ferreira’s decline in level and the abundance of criticism about his technical decisions in the formation and changes prompted the board of directors of the Zamalek club to take an urgent decision to convene the council to discuss the future of the Portuguese coach with the team, with a lot of speculation about his dismissal or the termination of the contract by mutual consent..
It is expected that a decision will be issued at any moment by Mortada Mansour, President of Zamalek Club, about the fate of the Portuguese coach, who has become obscure after the heavy loss from the traditional competitor..
Zamalek remained in fourth place in the standings table with 26 points, while Al-Ahly moved away from the lead with 34 points, so that the difference between the two teams widened to 8 points in favor of Al-Ahmar..
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