Ahly 2 - Zamalek 1: Game review

first,sorry for being a little late. as you most probably know ahly won the derby against zamalek 2-1, goal scorers were falvio and ahmed hassan from ahly and gamal hamza from zamalek. a lot to talk about in the game which wasn’t a bad one considering that it is the first match of the season.

first of all, we all must be grateful to the fans of both because the match ended without troubles as expected. the behavior of the fans just proves how ignorant and unprofessional our media is. they said it will be a battle and that there will be fights and so, but in reality it was something different. ahly fans called for mahmoud hamza, a zamalek fan who died two days ago because of cancer, a thing which was received by applause from zamalek fans.

the game itself was more defensive than open. each team played to secure its goal and didn’t take risks especially at the beginning. it seems that every team was afraid of the other or to be more accurate every team was discovering the other. there were very few missed chances if any at all.

as expected, the midfield battle was the focus of each team. no one prevailed but they exchanged control across the game. also the left wing side for ahly -right side for zamalek- was one of the hot areas of the field. you may find more than 4 or 5 players at this area. both goal keepers weren’t examined except for the goals and one or two chances.

Ahly
winning another derby,continuing to prevail, the team played a very good game and presented an excellent team work and proved their tactical abilities.the new signing proved to be worth especially Ahmed hassan who was chosen to be man of the match by FIFA.

they stated with 3 in the defense line shady Mohamed , wael gomaa and ahmed el sayed. the three has done a good job helped by the lack of strikers from zamalek.

on the right wing, played barakat who disappeared in many parts of the game and was dangerous on zamalek defense in other parts.

on the left side, gilberto was the key of the game for ahly. he was involved in both goals, in the first he took advantage from Mohamed abd allah’s mistake and crossed the ball to flavio who put it at th back of the net. in the second half all the focus was on his side as two players from zamalek marked him.

in midfield, ahmed hassan exerted huge effort and didn’t mis pass a lot and eventually was awarded with the winner of the match.

in attack, emad meteb and flavio were absent except in the goal however they assisted players from midfield and wings to create chances.

manuel jose should work on his defense as it seemed to be open at some parts of the game. with the addition of other signings who didn’t play this game, the team seems to be unstoppable.

Zamalek
best performance for the team since henry michel left, they played pretty well except for the two silly mistakes committed from mohamed abd allah and the scatter of the wall in the second goal.rather than the two goals, they were equal to ahly

however they seemed to play without wings as osama hassan on the left wing was almost absent in the match and didn’t form any kind of danger on ahly’s defense. on the other hand mohamed abd allah was more dangerous than useful for the team.

in midfield, ayman abd el aziz put up a very good performance; however, he was a little bit physical in his playing which may lead him to be booked or even shown red cards in the future.

in attack, agogo played his first match in egypt and his chemistry wasn’t at its best with other players while gamal hamza was the star of the team scoring a beautiful goal with the help of wael gomaa.

the team needs more time to get better but they showed they have very good potentials.

Notes
- it looks like it will be one hell of a season considering what we have seen in this match. the competition will be be very high between ahly and zamalek and maybe ENPPI and ismaily will join them.

-the referee was fair but he whistled for a lot of fouls which killed the game.

-arts of the stands were empty because of bad organization, tickets were sold to ahly fans more than there share that’s why there side of the stadium was over crowded

-every team is getting ready for the next derby in the super cup. a highly anticipated game indeed.

-emad meteb deal with bristol city is about to be canceled because the English club didn’t want him to play in the match.

here are the goals