Cairo derby, October 2026: Al Ahly beat Zamalek 2-0 to go top

A goal in each half settles it

Al Ahly beat Zamalek 2-0 in the Cairo derby on Sunday, 11 October 2026, at Cairo International Stadium, in Matchday 6 of the Egyptian Premier League. It was a win built on patience: one goal in each half, and a second half in which Al Ahly had to survive Zamalek’s strongest spell before sealing the game.

Mohamed Hany opened the scoring in the 39th minute, with a powerful right-footed shot from outside the penalty area that found the bottom left corner past Zamalek goalkeeper El Mahdy Soliman. Al Ahly went into half-time 1-0 up, and that single goal changed the shape of the evening: Zamalek had to chase, and Al Ahly had something to protect.

The second goal came in the 80th minute, when substitute Monsef Bakrar, set up by Ahmed Sayed Zizo, struck a powerful left-footed shot from outside the area to the goalkeeper’s left. Two goals, both from distance, both decisive — and a derby that had looked like it might still turn was settled in ten minutes of the final stretch.

Zamalek’s best spell came too late

Zamalek’s response after the break was real. They came out pressing, and Chico Banza suddenly looked alive to everything, with more than one moment that seemed certain to produce an equaliser — only for Al Ahly goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir to stand in the way.

The closest Zamalek came before half-time was in stoppage time, when Ahmed Sherif fed Banza inside the penalty area, only for his shot to be deflected by the Al Ahly defence for a corner. It was the story of Zamalek’s night in miniature: promising positions, no finish.

The numbers behind the result tell a similar story. Al Ahly had the better of the attacking play, and Zamalek, for all their second-half pressure, could not turn it into a goal. A derby is rarely decided by possession or territory alone, and this one was decided by the two moments of quality in front of goal — both of them Al Ahly’s.

What the result did to the table

The win took Al Ahly to 16 points and, at least temporarily, to the top of the Egyptian Premier League, with Pyramids still to play at the time. Zamalek stayed on 13 points in third place, and the defeat was their first in the league this season.

For Al Ahly’s Moroccan coach Hussein Ammouta, it was a first win in the Egyptian derby, in his first encounter with Zamalek since taking charge. It also extended Al Ahly’s recent dominance in the fixture: the win made it four head-to-head meetings in a row in which the Red Devils have had the better of their rivals.

In the longer history of the league fixture, the balance was already tilted Al Ahly’s way before kick-off: of 132 league meetings between the clubs, Al Ahly had won 52, Zamalek 29, and 51 had ended in draws. Sunday’s result stretched that lead a little further.

The unusual detail: Slovenian referees

One of the most talked-about details of the derby happened before a ball was kicked. The match was officiated by a six-man Slovenian team led by Rade Obrenović, appointed by the Egyptian Football Association for the high-profile encounter.

Egyptian refereeing official Essam Abdel-Fattah said before the match that the Slovenian team’s fees amounted to between $18,000 and $20,000, excluding travel and accommodation, with Obrenović himself reportedly due between $5,000 and $6,000. Egyptian authorities had initially explored appointing Portuguese referees before turning to Slovenia.

The derby even began oddly: Obrenović stopped play after just a few seconds to request a replacement ball. It was a small, strange opening to a night that, for Al Ahly, ended exactly as planned.

What it means for the title race

A derby win in October does not win a league, and Al Ahly’s stay at the top depended on other results. But the manner of it mattered: a clean sheet, a goal in each half, and a second-half spell survived without conceding, against the team that had started the season unbeaten.

For Zamalek, the first league defeat of the season is a setback, not a collapse — they remained third on 13 points, within reach of the summit. The question for both clubs now is the same one every derby leaves behind: who carries the momentum into the next round, and who lets it slip?

What is certain is that the next Cairo derby will be played with this one fresh in the memory. Al Ahly won the October derby 2-0, at Cairo International Stadium, with goals from Hany and Bakrar — and in a rivalry this old, that is the kind of result that gets quoted back at you.