The defeat is the second for the White Knights in four days as they lost 3-0 to archrivals Ahly in the Cairo derby on Saturday.

With Tuesday’s loss Zamalek extended their winless streak to five games to mount pressure on coach Jesualdo Ferreira whose fate at the club remains uncertain.

Zamalek are fifth in the league table with 26 points, eight points behind leaders Ahly who still has one more match to play.

The Defending champions entered the game hoping to regain their wining rhythm to restore calm in the club after a troubled week, but they failed to impress against the Nile Delta side.

Two defensive lapses allowed the hosts to score two consecutive goals in the first 20 minutes, while the consolation goal for Zamalek came three minutes after the hour-mark.

The Portuguese coach, who was severely criticized for the team’s poor defensive performance during the Cairo derby, played with three defenders instead of his usual strategy of 4-3-3 to strengthen his defense, before returning to his favorite strategy in the 30th minutes after conceding two goals.

Ahmed El-Nadri cleared Gabriel Orok from around 40 metres, with the Nigerian striker lobbing the ball to open the scoring for the hosts in the fifth minute.

El-Nadri turned from provider to scorer as he added the second after receiving a nice pass from Ahmed El-Sheikh 15 minutes later.

Zamalek tried to narrow the gap without posing any real threat to the hosts.

The defending champions exerted more pressure in the second half that saw the team squandering many goalscoring chances.

The consolation goal came in the 63rd minute when Ahmed ‘ Zizo’ Sayed converted a penalty gained by Tunisian striker Seif Jaziri.

Substitute Youssef Nabih was close to levelling the score on two occasions but his two curling shots went wide.

Zamalek will face Future FC on Sunday 29 January.    

(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)