It took a while for the defending Egyptian Premier League champions to find their goal, but Al Ahly laid siege to the Arab Contractors defense and finally earned their reward late on to eventually triumph 2-0 on Thursday. Ahly are now 13 points behind league leaders Zamalek but are maintaining the pace necessary to overtake their rivals, having played five games less at this point.
Arab Contractors held out well in the first half and managed to create a few chances, but overall it was a dominant performance from Ahly, who continue to find their rhythm as the league season progresses. After a scoreless first half, the pressure started to really ramp up from the visitors and the opening goal finally arrived in the 77th minute. A cross bounced off substitute Salah Mohsen but was poorly cleared by the Arab Contractors defense, allowing the ball to fall back to Mohsen with room to operate in the penalty area. The forward who will take part for Egypt in the upcoming Summer Olympics collected the ball and finished off the crossbar and just over the line, his goal confirmed following a VAR review.
With the hosts attempting to push for an equalizer late on, the finishing goal came from Mohamed Sherif for his sixth goal in his last six matches for Ahly. A long ball flicked off the head of an advanced Arab Contractors defender and the opportunistic Sherif was in on a breakaway, making no mistake to send his finish past keeper Mahmoud Hassan in the fourth minute of second half stoppage time.
Video of the goals are below.
