Al-Ahly and Arab Contractors Share Points in Dramatic 1–1 Draw
Al-Ahly threw everything at Arab Contractors under the floodlights at the Arab Contractors Stadium, but left with only a point from a breathless 1–1 draw in the Egyptian Premier League.
The Mountain Wolves struck first through Islam Gaber in the 38th minute. Ahmed Sayed "Zizo" replied from the spot early in the second half, in a match that crammed a disallowed goal, a major injury and a long-awaited comeback into 90 frantic minutes.
Gaber Strikes as Contractors Shock the Reds
Al-Ahly started like a side intent on settling the contest early. They pinned Arab Contractors back, moved the ball with authority and fired the first warning shots.
Soufiane Bendebka tried to set the tone, cutting across the edge of the box and dragging a low effort wide. Zizo then swung in a vicious early corner that forced the Mountain Wolves’ defence to scramble clear.
For all that pressure, the real chances refused to come. The game drifted into a tactical arm-wrestle, neither goalkeeper truly tested.
Then Arab Contractors suddenly broke the pattern.
On 20 minutes, Al-Ahly were almost punished. A quick ball sliced through the Reds’ back line and sent the home striker racing clear, only for Amr El-Gazzar to bail his side out with a crucial intervention, snuffing out what was, to that point, the clearest opening of the night.
The warning went unheeded.
Before the break, Omar Kamal Abdelwahed mistimed a challenge inside the area. The referee pointed straight to the spot. Islam Gaber stepped up, calm and ruthless, and drove home the penalty in the 38th minute to give Arab Contractors a shock lead and hand Al-Ahly their first goal conceded of the contest.
Al-Ahly nearly went in level. Deep into first-half stoppage time, El-Gazzar found space and rose to meet a cross, but his header flashed wide. The whistle blew with the Mountain Wolves still clinging to their precious, and deserved, 1–0 advantage.
Injury, Equaliser and a Disallowed Winner
The second half exploded almost immediately.
Just as Al-Ahly were gearing up for a siege, disaster struck. El-Gazzar, already central to their best moments, suffered a serious injury and had to be replaced in the 49th minute, a blow that cut through the visitors’ momentum and reshaped their attacking plans on the fly.
Still, the Reds pushed on.
Mohamed Beker tried to unlock the defence with a sharp pass into the box for Achraf Bencharki, but the ball ran too heavy and the chance slipped away. The pressure didn’t.
Bencharki soon took matters into his own hands. He drove at the Arab Contractors back line, weaving past defenders, and forced a desperate, heavy challenge from Khaled Abdelfattah inside the area in the 55th minute. Another penalty. Another turning point.
Zizo grabbed the ball, stared down the goalkeeper and buried the spot-kick in the 57th minute, dragging Al-Ahly back to level terms and flipping the atmosphere inside the stadium.
The game then lurched again.
Barely a minute later, Emam Ashour stepped onto the pitch for his first appearance in 112 days, his last outing for the Reds having come against Al-Masry at the end of the 2025/2026 league campaign. His entrance drew a line under the injury frustration of recent months and added a jolt of energy to Al-Ahly’s midfield.
The pressure finally told in the 62nd minute — or so the visitors thought. Beker pounced and lashed home what looked like Al-Ahly’s second goal, only for the celebrations to be cut short by an offside decision. The referee’s call wiped out the strike and handed Arab Contractors a lifeline they refused to squander.
From there, the match simmered rather than boiled. Al-Ahly probed, Arab Contractors dug in, both sides searching for one final decisive moment without over-committing.
It almost fell to the returning Ashour.
In the 88th minute, he found a pocket of space and unleashed a superb effort from distance, the ball skimming just centimetres over the bar. It was the kind of strike that would have crowned his comeback and sealed the points.
Instead, it summed up Al-Ahly’s night: close, threatening, but ultimately short of the winner they craved.
Arab Contractors held firm to protect their draw, while Al-Ahly walked away knowing this was a match that could easily have rewritten the early story of their season.
