CAIRO: Ten-man Zamalek extended their winless streak to three matches following a 1-1 home draw with bottom side Suez Cement in a behind-closed-doors Egyptian League game on Tuesday. Mohamed Al-Saghir fired the visitors in front early in the first-half but was cancelled out by Beshir Al-Tabie s free-kick shortly after. The Cairo giants played most of the game with ten men on the field after Tunisian defender Wissem El-Abdi was handed a straight red card for an ugly challenge on Al-Saghir. Dutch manager Ruud Krol risks losing his job after a string of poor results left Zamalek in seventh place of the league table with 10 points, seven adrift of leaders Al Ahly. Cement still lie at the bottom of the table on just three points from seven matches. Fans were banned from entering the stadium following a sanction by the Egyptian Football Association due to their inappropriate behavior in their team s 1-0 Cairo derby defeat to Al Ahly. Zamalek had the first chance after 11 minutes when Amr Zaki narrowly failed to get on the end of Gamal Hamza s free-kick at the far post. The visitors grabbed an unlikely lead one minute later through Al-Saghir, who capitalized on a flimsy defending by the men in white. After a fast counter attack, Al-Saghir controlled a long pass in Zamalek s own half, got the better of Al-Tabie, brushed aside Mahmoud Fathallah and hit a right-footed drive that went past the advancing Mohamed Abdel Monsef. Al-Tabie made amends for his fatal error in the 18th minute as he fired a low free-kick that went through the shaky wall and past Cement keeper Amir Tawfeeq. One minute later, Abdel Halim Ali received a pass on the left-flank before cutting inside and sending a shot that deflected off a defender and went just wide of the post. Abdel Aziz Ragab almost restored Cement s lead in the 24th minute when his brilliant curling free-kick from the edge of the area struck the upright. Zamalek hopes received a huge blow five minutes later when El-Abdi received his marching orders after hitting Al-Saghir s chest with his boot in an off-ball challenge. Seven minutes past the hour mark, Zaki rose unmarked to meet a cross from the right but his header missed the target. Hamza should have put Zamalek ahead three minutes later when Zaki s flicked header went into his path at the far post but he failed in his acrobatic attempt. The introduction of youngsters Mohamed Ibrahim and Sherif Ashraf rejuvenated Zamalek s attack, yet the strikers lacked the cutting edge. Zamalek s best chance came through Ashraf 11 minutes from time when his close-range header was denied by the post.
