Hamdy Fathy’s header in the second half was enough to give Al Ahly a precious three points over Al Mokawloon Al Arab in our fourth game in the Egyptian Premier League this season.
It was not an easy game and our players had to work hard to get the three points as we faced solid defense from Al Mokawloon Al Arab.
We are now leading the standings with 12 points after four games, with two points clear at the top.
First Half
Mosimane relied on his same starting line-up that defeated Zamalek 5-3 in Matchday 3.
The first ten minutes of the match saw complete dominance from the Red Eagles and we had several opportunities to break the deadlock.
Percy Tau and Mohamed Sherif tried to find the net but their efforts failed to change the scoreline.
Against the run of play, we conceded a goal by a brilliant header from Farouck, Al Mokawloon’s defender, but the referee disallowed the goal for offside after checking VAR.
We had a clear chance to open the score seconds before half-time when Hamdy jumped over the defenders to meet Ali Maaloul’s cross but his ball was stopped by the goalkeeper and the defense cleared the ball over the goal line.
Second Half
The second half started in similar fashion with our players pushing forward to find the net and the opponents staying at the back to stop all our attempts.
The referee whistled a penalty against Fathy but he reversed the decision after checking VAR.
Ahmed Abdelkader joined the game, replacing Ayman Asharf, as our coach added more skillful players in the midfield as we tried to find cracks in the opponent’s defense.
Hamdy's efforts finally paid off when he scored the opening goal with the same technique he used in the missed chance but this time he was lucky to find the net.
Mosimane made another substitution with Hussein El Shahaat replacing Percy Tau in the 76th minute.
Three minutes later, Mohamed El Shenawy saved our lead with a brilliant save.
Hamdy Fathy received a red card as he stopped Al Mokawloon’s striker, who was going on a one vs one situation with El Shenawy.
Tonight’s win helped us maintain our strong start to the season with four wins and three clean sheets.
