A recovering Ahly ease past Smouha to go top of Egyptian Premier League table

Mahmoud Elassal , Tuesday 7 Jan 2025

Defending Champions Ahly claimed the summit of the Egyptian League table after beating Smouha 2-0 in a rescheduled game on Tuesday in Cairo stadium. Emam Ashour was Man of The Match.

Ahly
(Photo: Ahly's official X account)

 

With the three points, the defending champions climbed to the top of the Egyptian League table with 15 points, one point ahead of rivals Zamalek and Pyramids FC, ending a string of draws in the competition.

On the other side, with the loss, Smouha's woes in the season continued as the Alexandrian side sit in 17th place - one spot from the bottom of the table -  after collecting only five points in seven matches.

Deprived of all his right-backs with the injuries of Mohamed Hani, Khaled Abdel-Fattah, and Omar Kamal, Swiss coach Marcel Koller had to reshuffle his formation, opting for a 3-4-3 scheme for the first time this season.

Ahly dominated the first half but squandered numerous scoring opportunities.

Wessam Abou Ali thought he had found the back of the net with a header in the 27th minute, only for VAR to rule out the goal after detecting that the Palestinian international pushed off a Smouha defender before scoring.

Koller was compelled to introduce substitute Karim Eldebes in the 33rd minute to replace the injured Moroccan left-back, Yahya Attiat-Allah, who left the pitch with an eye injury sustained after strong contact with a Smouha defender.

Mohamed ‘Afsha’ Magdy broke the deadlock seconds before halftime, and Emam Ashour doubled the score six minutes into the second half.

Down the stretch in the second half, the crossbars denied two goals for Smouha in less than two minutes, deflecting back-to-back attempts on goal by striker Hossam Hassan and substitute Mohamed Salem.

In the dying minutes, ‘Afsha’ missed a clear-cut opportunity to put the game away on a counterattack, failing to hit the target after finding himself one-on-one with Smouha's goalkeeper.

Emam Ashour was selected Man of The Match.

Ahly are set to take on Stade d'Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday in the fifth round of the CAF Champions League group stage.

Meanwhile, Smouha will face Modern FC on Sunday, the 8th matchday of the Egyptian League.

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

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