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Factbox: Highlights of Ahly's 36th league title Highlights of Ahly's 2010/11 Egyptian Premier League season after the Red Devils won a seventh consecutive title on Thursday with one match to spare
Fine start Defending champions Ahly made a fine start to their season, winning five times and drawing twice in their first seven games. Their early displays were not so impressive but Ahly still proved as efficient as ever on a number of occasions. They came from behind to beat El-Entag El-Harby 2-1 with a late goal from classy playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika and snatched a last gasp 3-2 victory over ENPPI in a thrilling affair, thanks to a stoppage-time goal from veteran attacking midfielder Mohamed Barakat. Ismaily defeat They began to suffer a dip in form shortly afterwards that culminated in a 3-1 defeat by bitter rivals Ismaily in November, which incurred the wrath of Ahly's supporters and increased pressure on coach Hossam El-Badry. El-Badry, who said he could no longer bear the attack of fans, handed in his resignation despite Ahly's attempts to keep hold of him. He left the club after steering them to the league title in 2009/10 and the Egyptian Super Cup few months later. Jose's return Ahly icon Abdel-Aziz Abdel-Shafy, widely known as Zizo, took over at the club on a temporary basis following El-Badry's departure. The Red Devils drew four times in five matches under his guidance, including a goalless draw with arch rivals Zamalek in the Cairo derby. Portuguese boss Manuel Jose, who earned a cult status among the team's faithful after guiding them to a host of local and continental titles in two spells, made a shock return in January after ending a brief stint with Saudi Arabia's Ittihad Jeddah. He was given a rousing reception and he repaid the faith of Ahly's fans after masterminding a remarkable comeback that eventually helped the team bridge a six-point gap with Zamalek. Zamalek stumbles Jose's return was followed by a Zamalek freefall as the White Knights failed to keep momentum following a lengthy league break imposed due to January's popular revolution. They started to drop points to allow Ahly, who became largely consistent following Jose's arrival, to catch them at the top. In late May, Zamalek slumped to a stunning 1-0 home defeat to promoted Maqassa, who played with 10 men for around 57 minutes, as Ahly went level on points with their traditional foes after crushing Harras El-Hodoud 3-0. Happy end Ahly went from strength to strength to enjoy a five-point advantage over Zamalek with just two matches remaining before the end of the season. Zamalek continued to stumble while Ahly maintained their steady displays to claim crucial victories over ENPPI and Ismaily. They also scored a late equalizer to share honours with Zamalek in a 2-2 Cairo derby draw before netting deep in stoppage time to salvage another 2-2 draw with Smouha and effectively end their competitors' title hopes. The win over Arab Contractors in the penultimate round was enough for a happy end.
