Sherif and Dabbagh star for Zamalek in high-scoring Nile League victory

Zamalek produced a pleasing performance for their supporters on Wednesday with a dominant 5-2 victory away at Kahraba Ismailia to close out the day’s action from the Egyptian Nile League.

Ahmed Sherif and Palestine national team forward Oday Dabbagh each scored twice and Nasser Mansy added another goal for a club that is in strong form. The result moves The White Castle into second place on the Nile League table past Cairo rivals Al Ahly and Pyramids FC after the latter fell to Smouha earlier on Wednesday.

An entertaining match for supporters of attacking football took place and it was Sherif who struck first in the 38th minute, when the Egypt U-20 international received a pass from Mansy to finish following poor distribution from Kahraba goalkeeper Farag Shawky. Dabbagh scored his first shortly after from a rebound, followed by a Zamalek own goal just before halftime to keep the result in suspense.

And the match remained quite close until the 70th minute. Sherif doubled his tally in the 52nd minute after some excellent team passing, but former Zamalek forward Omar El Said cut the deficit back to one goal when he leaped to head in a corner kick.

In the end, the visitors got the result they deserved thanks to more incompetence from the Kahraba defense when a clearance attempt went right to Mansy, who fired in. Mansy then provided his second assist late on to set up Dabbagh in the 87th minute to finish the scoring.

 

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The 14-time Egyptian champions are now four points back of leaders Ceramica Cleopatra, who know that their place atop the table is safe for now after Pyramids and Al Ahly failed to take advantage of games in hand.

League action will continue over the weekend with all clubs involved except for Egypt’s representatives in CAF interclub competition. Zamalek will travel to Zambia to face ZESCO United in the CAF Confederation Cup on Sunday, where they can clinch a place in the quarterfinals with a victory after defeating fellow Egyptian club Al Masry last Sunday.