Al Ahly scored a 100th-minute penalty to secure a 1-1 draw with Ceramica Cleopatra at the Al-Mokawloon al-Arab Stadium on Saturday evening.
Pitso Mosimane’s side needed a victory to get their title charge back on track after a 1-0 defeat to Al Masry and a goalless draw against El-Gaish in their previous two games.
Percy Tau, who’s on a seven-match goal drought in the league was dropped to the bench for Luis Miquissone but the changes failed to secure the desired impact against the side languishing 13th in the 18-team division.
Despite dominating possession against the home side who played with a low block to frustrate the African champions, they only mustered three shots on target from 21 attempts while Ceramica only had one on target, which proved to be the opener of the game as former Zamalek forward Basem Morsy found the net on the counter against the run of play.
It proved a largely frustrating evening for the Red Devils and the travelling supporters but they secured some sort of reprieve when they were awarded penalty upon VAR review which Mohamed Magdy Afsha slotted home with aplomb.
Ahly who have two games in hand over the reigning champions – having only played 14 league games out of the 34 for the 2021/22 season now trial reigning champions Zamalek by six points.
