Ahly's coach Hossam El-Badry has praised the performance of his team's players despite losing two points in the 2-2 draw with Ittihad of Alexandria on the 7th matchday of the Egyptian Premier League on Sunday. "We played one of our best games against Ittihad as we dominated the game but we wasted more scoring chances and failed to achieve victory," El-Badry told the post-game press conference. "We could achieve our target from the beginning of the game but some individual mistakes caused the draw," he added. The Cairo giants' playmaker Abdallah El-Said had a penalty saved when his side were leading 1-0 and substitute Moemen Zakareya struck the post from the spot in stoppage time in a dramatic encounter. Ahly piled on pressure, wasting a host of chances, bombarding Ittihad's goal until they were given another penalty in the third minute of stoppage time after a defender needlessly kicked out at substitute Amr Gamal. Attacking midfielder Moamen Zakareya's low shot struck the post and Ahmed Fathi skied the rebound high over as Ittihad breathed a sigh of relief. "We have to resolve our individual mistakes that appeared during the game due to a lack of concentration," the Ahly coach said. "I don't speak about wasting scoring penalties while our individual mistakes allowed Ittihad to get back into the game despite our early goal," he said. The Cairo giants, who were held to a 0-0 draw by Petrojet in their previous match, are still on top of the table with 17 points, two ahead of second-placed Maqassa who have a game in hand. Ittihad moved to the fourth spot on 13 points. "All the players did their best and we managed to return to the game after losing 2-1 due to their insistence to win," El-Badry said. "Finally, I am satisfied with the team's performance," the Ahly tactician concluded. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
