Ahly turn the tables - Sports - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

15-05-2025

From being behind by as many as four points, Ahly performed an outstanding turnaround and are now in pole position to win the Egyptian football league.
Defending champions Ahly have taken the lead in the Egyptian Premier League with three games left in the 2025 season.
After five rounds in the playoffs, Ahly are atop the table with 49 points. Pyramids are second, two points behind. As of writing on 12 May Zamalek are a distant third with 41 points with the same number of remaining games.
National Bank are in fourth with 36 points but having played a game less.
When Ahly's Swiss coach Marcel Koller was forced out after his club failed to reach the final of the African Champions League, of which they are the defending champions as well, Ahly were in second place, four behind Pyramids with six games left for each.
Since then, however, in a stunning reversal, Ahly won their next three games under interim coach Emad Al-Nahhas. During the same period, Pyramids lost two and won once.
Ahly's six-point turnaround happened in just over a week starting 30 April.
Pyramids' freefall started when they suffered a 3-2 loss against Pharco FC to snap a 16-game unbeaten run in the league and reduce the gap to Ahly at the top of the table to just a single point.
The turning point of this season could well have been Pyramids' second loss during this period when Krunoslav Jurčić's men fell 4-2 to National Bank at Cairo International Stadium.
At the same time, Ahly edged Petrojet 3-2, then hammered Haras Al-Hodoud 5-0, and defeated Masri 4-2, an offensive average of a remarkable four goals a game
The next stop is on Tuesday 13 May after Al-Ahram Weekly goes to print, when Ahly will take on Ceramica who lie in sixth place and 18 points behind Ahly.
On the same day, Pyramids clash with Zamalek who have a mathematical chance of winning the league but who will likelier try to salvage what remains of the season by finishing in second place to qualify for next season's African Champions League or third or fourth place in order to get into the African Confederation Cup.
Ahly are now in control of their destiny and would take their record 44th league crown if they win their next three games, no matter what their rivals do.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 May, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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