Recently-crowned Egyptian league champions Ahly could not beat Alexandria's Ittihad to play out a 1-1 draw at Borg El-Arab Stadium as they prepare for the final-week Cairo derby clash with arch-rivals Zamalek.

With manager Martin Jol starting with veteran striker Emad Meteb and Ahmed El-Sheikh, the former opened ths scoring inside the first half before seeing his goal cancelled out by Ahmed El-Alfi in superb fashion with 11 minutes left.

The match saw Ahly center-back Saad Samir receive his marching orders in the 68^th minute for two bookable offences as the hosts continued the remainder of the half with 10 men.

The Reds, who secured their 38^th league title following last week's 2-1 over Ismaily, are now on 75 points, while Ittihad are 13th with 39 points. 

After missing a sixth minute chance, Meteb opened the scoring following a corner from right-back Mohamed Hani that was headed by Hossam Ghaly towards the unmarked striker who slotted home on 34 minutes.

Then came the red card for defender Samir in the second half, with Ittihad looking to capitalize on their numerical advantage, and indeed they did in the 79^th minute.

A clever lofted through ball from Youssef 'Obama', on loan from Zamalek, allowed El-Alfi to go through as he smashed the ball past understudy keeper Ahmed Adel as both sides shared spoils. 

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