Zamalek coach Manuel Cajuda and Ahli boss Manuel Jose both agreed that their victories over Enppi and Arab Contractors were of utmost importance to their Egyptian league campaigns. “Enppi posed great threat over the Zamalek net throughout the match, nevertheless we succeeded in winning them. This was very important for us before our derby against Ahli that will take place on Sunday,” Cajuda told the media on Thursday. Cajuda also revealed that he was impressed by defender Mahmoud Mahmoud's goal against Enppi and said that he would depend more on him in midfield and defense to try and net a goal to make up for the heavily-guarded strikers, Mostafa Gaafar, Gamal Hamza and Abdel-Halim Ali. The Portuguese coach said that he was content with his side's second place in the Egyptian league standings, given that it will automatically qualify them to next season's African Champions League and missing out on all the of the regional competitions after coming sixth in last season's league. On the other hand, Jose expressed his happiness in defeating Arab Contractors since it moved them only one point away to retaining last season's title. Jose revealed that his players were expected to play their highly-anticipated derby without any worries given their need for only one more point, and insisted that his decision to conduct a closed training camp was not to farther them from the fans, but to increase their concentrating on their training for the match. Ahli trained on Thursday in front of a massive crowd for the first time given Jose's refusal to allow the fans to enter the training ground to watch the players earlier.
