Zamalek moves to the next round easily

Zamalek players

Sunday Aug 25, 2019. 15:00

Zamalek breezed to a second successive high scoring victory over Dekedaha of Somalia in the African Champions League on Saturday, winning 6-0 at Alexandria’s Borg el Arab Stadium for a 13-0 aggregate triumph.

It marked a winning start to new coach Milutin Sredojevich’s career with the Cairo giants, just one week on from his surprise resignation at Orlando Pirates.

There were two goals for striker Mostafa Mohamed and veteran Mahmoud Shikabala, although Zamalek took 25 minutes to score their first and another 25 minutes to add a second.

Mohamed opened the scoring with a cheeky chip over the goalkeeper after a pass from new Moroccan signing Achraf Bencharki and then added his, and Zamalek’s second, with a header at the back post.

Shikabala then followed with two of his own in quick succession to make it 4-0 with just over 15 minutes left.

Zamalek defender Mahmoud Alaa then squandered a penalty but the Egyptians were quickly awarded another spot kick when Bencharki was tripped and Alaa made no mistake the second time round.

Defensive midfielder Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz completed the six-goal tally five minutes from time.

It is the first time in 29 years that a Somali clubs participated in African club competition but because of the country’s tenuous security situation, Dekedaha ceded first leg advantage and played that game in Cairo last weekend, losing 7-0.