Nasser Mansi completed his hat-trick of goals in the final seconds to give Zamalek the edge in a wild 4-3 victory in Cairo over Sudan’s Al-Merrikh on Friday in the CAF Champions League. Mostafa Shalaby also scored within the opening eleven seconds in a match that saw the Egyptian club take an early lead before conceding three goals and then making one final push to come back and claim three points. Zamalek end their participation in the group stage with a third place finish in Group D while Merrikh finish at the foot of the table.
A chaotic start and poor defense throughout made for an entertaining match at the Cairo International Stadium. Shalaby opened the scoring immediately by sending an open shot past Merrikh goalkeeper Mohamed Mustafa and then Mansi scored his first in the third minute when he was given far too much space to fire by Mustafa in the penalty area. Merrikh got one back in the 7th minute when Ramadan Agab chested in a cross from the left wing by Bakhit Khamis.
Merrikh coach Heron Ricardo made two substitutions before the half hour mark and the Sudanese club found some stability to stop conceding for the rest of the first half. One of the substitutes, Al-Jazoli Nooh, equalized for Merrikh in the 49th minute by running onto Agab’s headed pass and finishing past Zamalek keeper Mohamed Sobhi. Paulo Sérgio then put the visitors into the lead before the hour mark when Sobhi spilled a Matheuzinho shot and the Brazilian striker followed up to head in the rebound.
However it was Mansi who rescued Zamalek in the end. The recent acquisition from Bank Al Ahly headed in Abdallah Gomaa’s accurate cross in the 64th minute to make it 3-3 and the hosts continued to put on the pressure. Mustafa came up with an amazing triple save early in stoppage time but Mansi’s shot beat the Sudan national team goalkeeper at his near post in the fourth minute of time added on shortly before the full time whistle.
Highlights are below.
