Eric Bekoe maintained his impressive displays to help Petrojet keep pace with Egyptian Premier League leaders Ahli via another match-winning display at the expense of Gaish. The Ghanaian marksman put in an inspiring performance to lead Petrojet to a 2-1 home victory over Gaish on Wednesday. His first-half brace was enough for Mokhtar Mokhtar's side to surge clear in second place, four points behind defending champions Ahli. Bekoe, who joined Petrojet from Asante Kotoko last January, opened the scoring on the quarter-hour mark after being set up by Egyptian international midfielder Mohamed Shaaban. He sealed the victory two minutes before the break when he broke the offside trap to latch onto a long ball, round the advancing keeper and slot it into an empty net. The 21-year-old took his tally to 10 league goals to top the scorers' chart after 14 games. Local reports in Ghana said pressure is mounting on national team coach Milovan Rajevac to call him up ahead of next month's African Cup of Nations. Farouk Gaafar's Gaish are slowing down after making an impressive start to their league campaign. They slipped into fourth place in the league table after losing to Petrojet - their second successive defeat.
Ismaili overcome Masri Last season's runners-up Ismaili once again had to battle for a hard-fought victory, beating Masri 2-1 in an entertaining game to move up to third, five points behind Ahli. Goals from Ahmed Sedik and Abdullah Saied either side of Ashour Al-Adham's thunderous strike for Masri handed Ismaili a valuable win. The Dervishes are still struggling due to lack of reliable strikers and will probably have to be active in the January transfer window if they are to compete with Ahli for the league title. "We wasted many goalscoring opportunities which could have given us a comfortable win, but I'm sure we can mount a serious challenge for the title," Ismaili coach Emad Soliman said after the game. Doe Effect Ahli showed they will likely come through the current injury crisis unscathed after a second-half goal from Francis Doe gave them a 1-0 victory over lowly Gouna at Cairo Stadium. The Red Devils were forced to play without a host of key players for the fourth match running but managed to snap a three-match winless streak which included draws against bitter rivals Zamalek and Ismaili. Liberian striker Doe headed home after a blunder from Gouna keeper Essam Mahmoud for his third goal this season.
Another important win for Zamalek "My players are very exhausted. Most of them play in the national team and they play too many domestic games," Ahli coach Hossam Al-Badri commented. "Our opponents play very tough games against us because we are the leaders and the defending champions and this result in many injuries." Zamalek grabbed their second consecutive win under new and promising manager Hossam Hassan after defeating bottom side Asyut Petroleum 2-0. Striker Ahmed Gaafar and diminutive right-winger Hazem Emam, who both scored in last week's 3-0 victory over Masri, were on target again as the White Knights produced a spirited display to move up to ninth. Harras Hodoud, Egyptian Cup winners last season, suffered a 3-2 defeat to an in-form Military Production side after surrendering their lead twice. The team's sixth defeat in 14 games prompted coach Tarek Al-Ashri, the architect of their rise to prominence during the past few years, to hand in his resignation but he made a U-turn over his decision later on. ENPPI returned to winning ways after claiming a 2-1 victory over Arab Contractors and Ittihad extended their unbeaten run under Brazilian coach Carlos Cabral to eight matches after defeating Mansoura 1-0. Police Union thrashed Ghazl Mahalla 4-0 in a controversial game that witnessed two red cards.
