Zamalek wins the Egyptian League and is equal with Al-Ahly

Zamalek achieved its third victory in a row and came at the expense of its guest, the deficient National Bank, 1-0 on Thursday at Cairo International Stadium, within the twentieth stage of the Egyptian Football League, with a goal scored by Ahmed Sayed “Zizou” from a penalty kick (45 + 6).

Zamalek, which won over El Gouna 3-2 and its traditional rival Al-Ahly 2-1 in the last two stages, raised its score to 24 points from 14 matches to occupy twelfth place, equal to Al-Ahly of Egypt, and still has six postponed matches due to its foreign participation. While the National Bank’s balance froze at 18 points in fifteenth place.

Contrary to expectations, the National Bank started the match pressing and surprised Zamalek’s defense in more than one attempt. Injuries forced Portuguese coach Jose Gomes, Zamalek coach, to make two early changes in the first half hour. He brought on defender Hossam Abdel Majeed instead of Mostafa El-Zenari (12), then brought on Beninese Samson Akinola. Instead of Mustafa Shalabi (26).

Moments before the end of stoppage time, the referee awarded a penalty kick for Zamalek after Mohamed Abdel Ghani obstructed Akinola, which Zizou successfully executed.

The goal was the 77th goal for Zizou in the Zamalek shirt in all competitions since he joined the white team in 2019, continuing to occupy seventh place in the list of historical scorers for the white team.

The National Bank’s hopes of returning suffered a severe blow at the beginning of the second half, when its player Osama Faisal received a second warning for claiming a fall inside the penalty area and was sent off (55), and his team completed the match with ten players.

Ahmed Hamdy thought he had doubled Zamalek’s lead 12 minutes before the end of the match, when he took advantage of Zizou’s cross, which National Bank goalkeeper Hassan Shaheen failed to catch. But the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) showed that Zizou was offside, so the goal was disallowed.

Zamalek will meet Smouha in Alexandria on Sunday, before the white team devotes itself to the two matches of the African Confederation Cup final. Zamalek reached the final by defeating Ghana’s Dreams 3-0 on aggregate in the two semi-final matches.