On the technical side, the team begins intense preparations, on Thursday, for its upcoming league match against arch-rivals Al Ahly, which is scheduled for next Sunday. It is a meeting in which Zamalek hopes to come out victorious, to maintain its top spot in the league. The White Knights are currently leading the Egyptian Premier League table with 33 points from 14 games, while Al Ahly trails by six points in fourth place on 27 points. The latter has three postponed matches until it equals Zamalek in number of matches. Zamalek's administrative apparatus provides records of Al Ahly's recent matches, to place them on the Carteron table starting today, so that Zamalek's technical staff can identify the team's strengths and weaknesses. The technical staff at Al-Ahly, meanwhile, is preparing early for the summit match, which will take place at Cairo International Stadium. Zamalek sees this next match as a life or death affair, after its traditional rivals Al Ahly won all the local and continental titles last season, capped by the African Champions League title in the final of the century. Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane told his auxiliary apparatus that technical statistics must be prepared on all Zamalek players, in order to reach the ideal formation. This match brings together the two giants of Egyptian football, after it was postponed, as it was scheduled to take place in the fourth round of the League Championship. Al Ahly is looking forward to winning match points against Zamalek in order to continue the competition for the top of the league championship. It is a bit of an uphill task for Mosimane, considering that he now has a long list of injured players, most of whom are likely to miss out on the upcoming match against Zamalek. The list of Al-Ahly's injured includes 10 players, most of whom play defence, including Ali Maaloul, Mahmoud Wahid, Mohamed Hani, and Yasser Ibrahim. The South African coach advised the team players that they should adhere to the food programme during the holy month of Ramadan, which was established by nutritionist and food specialist Abd Al-Rahman Saeed. A source with the Al-Ahly club stated that Mosimane threatened Al Ahly players with penalties if any player gained weight during Ramadan. He called on them to adhere to the food programme, and to stay away from gatherings due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The source added that Mosimane ordered that the weight of Al Ahly players be measured on a daily basis in order to control weight gains and punish violators.
