Al Ahly had little time to dwell on their 2023 CAF Super Cup defeat to Algeria’s USM Alger before beginning their 2023-24 Egyptian Premier League campaign on Tuesday, a day after the league season commenced. However there were no ill effects from the defeat on Friday as Ahly stormed to a 4-0 victory over Al Masry courtesy of two goals from Percy Tau. Ahly were joined by El Gaish and newly promoted ZED FC as winners from the opening two days of the new season.
Tuesday’s match against Al Masry featured the debut of new Ahly striker Anthony Modeste but it was a rather sluggish start from the defending champions. Towards the end of the first half the Red Devils began to improve their play and an opportunistic finish from new signing Reda Slim gave Ahly the lead just before the break. After a red card to Masry defender Baher El Mohamady early in the second half it was dominance for the home side with Tau striking twice in six minutes before Karim Fouad finished the scoring late.
Several Ahly reserves made the move to ZED FC as the club returned to the Egyptian top tier with a 1-0 victory over El Ismaily. Mostafa Saad took advantage of a poor mistake from the Ismaily team to score the only goal for ZED whose team included former Ahly backup goalkeeper Ali Lotfi, forward Shady Hussein and Mohamed Ashraf on loan from the reigning champions.
League play began on Monday with a victory for Tala’ea El Gaish who defeated Bank Al Ahly by a 2-0 score. Two second half goals confirmed an ideal start for the Army club who struggled last season in the bottom half of the table.
Highlights from all three matches on Monday and Tuesday are below following the list of scores.
Scores
Monday
El Gaish 2-0 Bank Al Ahly
Tuesday
ZED FC 1-0 El Ismaily
Al Ahly 4-0 Al Masry
Highlights
Al Ahly 4-0 Al Masry
El Gaish 2-0 Bank Al Ahly
ZED FC 1-0 El Ismaily
