Ahly coach Martin Jol (Reuters)
After a goalless draw with Zamalek, Ahly's Dutch coach Martin Jol asked Zamalek fans not to be angry for failing to beat his team, despite playing with a full squad while the Red Devils suffered from the absence of key players due to injury.
Zamalek enjoyed territorial dominance but could not find a breakthrough as they failed to claim their first Egyptian Premier League win over newly-crowned champions Ahly in nine years, following a dour 0-0 draw in the Cairo derby on the final day of the league's season.
"Zamalek fans shouldn't be angry as we celebrate winning the title for two days while they failed to beat us today despite playing with a full squad," Jol told the post-game press conference.
"We have two days to celebrate winning the Egyptian Premier League title as we defeated Zamalek in the first round and achieved a positive result in the second round, despite the key players' absence," he added.
Under the helm of Dutch coach Jol, Ahly claimed the Egyptian Premier League title two games before its end with seven points over arch rivals and runners-up Zamalek.
"I am happy for winning the league and continued the points gap with our rivals," Jol said.
"We are working to get the team to superb performance levels during the coming period, to recover from the bad shape they appeared in during Ramadan," the Dutch coach said.
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