In England, Adam Al-Abd's Brighton played two games this week, one in the championship against Blackburn and one in the FA cup where they faced Premier League giants Arsenal. Both Al-Abd and his team didn't have the best of weeks. First, they were heading for a defeat against Blackburn Rovers away from home but fortunately for them David Lopez snatched an equaliser in the 97th minute to rescue a point. Al-Abd had a good game at the office as he made several crucial tackles and interceptions to insure his side stayed in the game until the last minute. However, it was a totally different story for Al-Abd against Arsenal. More accurately, Al-Abd will not want to remember this game as he was tormented by Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud throughout the match. The game ended in a 3-2 defeat for Brighton as Walcott scored the winner four minutes from time via a deflection off the unlucky Al-Abd. Before the winner, Giroud twice escaped from Al-Abd to score for Arsenal as the powerful Egyptian struggled to cope with the movement of the French striker and the speed of Walcott. The draw against Blackburn meant Brighton stayed 7th in the league while they said goodbye to the FA cup in dramatic fashion. Still in England, Mido's soon to be former team Barnsley managed to knock Ahmed Al-Mohamadi's former employees Hull City out of the FA cup as they defeated them by a single goal away from home. Mido wasn't included in the match squad of course as he's set to leave the club before the transfer window closes this month. On the other hand Al-Mohamadi is not a Hull City player anymore as he went back to Sunderland two weeks ago. Al-Mohamadi's Sunderland was knocked out of the Cup in the previous round so they didn't see action this week as there were no league games as well. Al-Mohamadi will be hoping to catch O'Neill's attention in training in order to feature more in coming weeks after his two-minute cameo against Wigan last week. In Turkey, Amr Zaki finally left Elazigspor as he paid from his own money in order to terminate the contract. Zaki's move to Turkey can be considered a failure for all concerned parties as the Egyptian striker failed to find the back of the net in his six-month stay at the club and assisted only two goals while Elazigspor were hoping that Zaki will score goals for fun after seeing him shine in the Premier League in previous seasons. However, up until Zaki was playing up front for the Turkish minnows the team was bottom of the league. Zaki's next destination is unknown but is expected to be either in Egypt or one of the Gulf countries. In Switzerland, Mohamed Salah and Basel are back from their minicamp at Spain where they held a small preseason to get ready for the second part of the league. It is worth mentioning that during the past month Salah's Egyptian teammate Al-Nene has been having a trial with the Swiss giants where he shined according to reports. It's still unknown whether the Swiss club wants to sign Al-Nene but let's hope Salah's good performances so far with the team will push them towards putting their trust in another Egyptian in the form of Al-Nene. In Italy, Ahmed Hegazi's Fiorentina will play in a few days against Catania away from home as they will try to get back to winning ways after three losses and one draw in the last four games in all competitions. Hegazi's recovery is going well according to the club's doctor and he is expected to start running in three months. In Belgium, Hani Ramzi's Lierse continued their indifferent form as they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Zulte Waregem away from home. On loan Egyptian striker Ashour Al-Takki and fellow Egyptian Mohamed Al-Gabbas both started in attack for the Belgian club but failed to score as their team were second best throughout the 90 minutes. Al-Takki left the pitch in the 67th minute while Al-Gabbas left it in the 82nd minute as Ramzi tried to get his team back in the game but unfortunately the two early goals scored by Zulte were more than enough to clinch all three points for the hosts. Lierse stay in 15th place out of 16 games after that loss. In the UAE, El Wasl continued their awful form without our injured magician Shikabala as they slipped to a fifth consecutive defeat at the hands of El Nasr. Shikabala's absence is clearly causing El Wasl all sorts of problems as they have rarely threatened the opponents' goal in recent games. It was expected that Shika will return this week to face El Nasr. He was not fit enough to feature in the game that ended in a 1-0 win for El Nasr. The defeat means El Wasl slips to eighth place. On the other hand, Mohamed Zidan's Banni Yas maintained their superb run of form as they defeated Ittihad Kalba 2-1 away from home in the absence of the Egyptian maestro who has yet to recover from his groin injury. The win which was their fourth in the last five games meant they stayed third in the league table. Arab and African players: In France, Ghanaian duo Andre Ayew and Jordan Ayew both scored as Marseille drew 2-2 away against Rennes. Both Ghanaian stars were not picked for the Africa Cup of Nations (ACN) after clashing with the head coach. Still in France, Cameroonian striker Efoulou scored the first goal for Nancy as they defeated Lorient 2-1 at home. Nigerian star John Utaka who wasn't picked for ACN scored the second goal for Montpellier as they defeated Sochaux 2-0 at home. In Germany, Senegalese striker Mama Diouf scored the second goal for Hannover as they defeated Wolfsburg 2-1 at home. That was Diouf's eighth goal of the campaign. In Spain, Ghanaian superstar Michael Essien had a terrific game in the middle of the park as Real Madrid thrashed Getafe 4-0 thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick.
