Egypt's football teams defeated their African contenders and secured their place in the African competitions, Abeer Anwar reports Egypt's four top football teams -- Zamalek, Ahli, the Arab Contractors and Ismaili -- made it this week in their bid to stay on in the African competitions. Zamalek was able to win its first African match after three consecutive draws when it beat Tunisia's Esperance team on its home field 2-1 in the African Champions League quarter-final. Zamalek now top Group B with six points on goal difference with Etoile du Sahel. Zamalek were able to make up for their draw in Cairo and virtually smashed the Tunisian team from the first minute to be able to control the match. Zamalek players really fought to win and maintained a very enthusiastic spirit to keep up the lead. With such a victory, the Cairene club gets to stay hopeful of qualifying for the semi-final and meeting its arch-rival Ahli in the final. Esperance's Frank Olivier started the goal score with a header while the long-absent star Hazem Emam drew for Zamalek in the second half. Then the newly-signed Awule Quaye scored the second goal and thus secured Zamalek's victory. In Group A, Ahli drew 0-0 with South Africa's Ajax Cape Town; however they still top the group with 10 points and remain at a six-point difference with Enyimba. It is the 36th match that Ahli have played without being defeated since last June. Ahli's defence line was extremely strong and blocked all of Ajax's attempts to score. Essam El-Hadari, Ahli's goalkeeper, was also very much on guard. Ahli's next match will be against Raja Casablanca of Morocco on 20 August, while Ajax will play Enyimba on 21 August. Nigeria's Enyimba beat Raja Casablanca of Morocco 2-0 in a Group A match. The victory took Enyimba to second place after Ahli with a total of four points. Ghana's Joe Tex Frimpong became Enyimba's shining star as he scored both goals, giving his team a 2-0 lead. The top two teams in each group qualify for the semi-finals, which will be played out over two legs in September and October. In the Confederation Cup, Ismaili were not able to win despite the fact that they were playing on their home turf. They drew 1- 1 at home with Nigeria's Dolphin in Group B. The Nigerians scored first when Endurance Idahor on the 12th minute of the first half, while Ismaili's Ahmed Fathi drew on the 24th minute of the same half. Both teams stayed on their guard until the end of the match -- it seemed as though the players of both sides felt that this score was better than anything. Both sides have four points from two games. The Arab Contractors -- in the same group as Ismaili -- beat FC 105 of Gabon 2-1. Next up for Dolphin will be FC 105 in two weeks time, while the other game that weekend will be an Egyptian derby as Arab Contractors play Ismaili.
