Yasser Ibrahim Gives Al Ahly a Late Win Over Smouha in Round 3 of the Egyptian League
By: Dr. Talal Othman, General Manager — GCC Sport
The win Al Ahly secured over Smouha on Thursday evening was not the easy victory the Red fans have come to expect against a side sitting near the bottom of the table. Al Ahly needed almost the full ninety minutes to break their opponents' resistance, before center-back Yasser Ibrahim appeared at exactly the right moment in the 87th minute, scoring the match's only goal and handing his team three points that were heavier than the scoreline suggested.
The match, played at Cairo International Stadium as part of Round 3 of the Egyptian Premier League, carried more significance than the bare result revealed. Smouha, despite their lowly league position and meager tally of a single point, put up an organized resistance that disrupted the game plan of Moroccan coach Hussein Ammouta, who has taken on the task of restructuring the Red Castle after a disappointing season.
Ammouta, who made changes to the starting lineup by returning Yasser Ibrahim to the heart of defense and pushing Sofiane Bendebka forward in attack, did not see his team convert their expected dominance into real chances until the closing stages. Mostafa Shobeir kept a clean sheet, while Al Ahly's midfield led by Zizo and Marwan Attia searched for gaps in an organized defense that didn't budge easily.
The goal itself came to encapsulate a familiar scene in modern football: a defender deciding the fate of a complicated match when the traditional attacking lines fail to find a breakthrough. The timing of the goal, in the 87th minute, carries an added psychological weight for a team that had begun to feel the strain of a scoreless draw against an opponent considered modest on paper.
With this win, Al Ahly moves up to nine points in fourth place, following two earlier victories over Enppi and Zed, continuing to chase a league lead still out of reach at the start of a season in which Ammouta wants to prove himself quickly. Smouha, meanwhile, remain stuck at the bottom with a single point an early sign of a difficult season ahead for the Alexandria side.
What looked like an ordinary three-point win was, at its core, a test of patience for Ammouta's new project one Al Ahly passed, however difficult, and however unexpected the scorer.
