Ahli captain Shadi Mohamed dished out praise for Zamalek counterpart Ayman Abdul-Aziz, saying the White Knights would have been more effective if he had been included in his team's Cairo derby starting eleven. The Zamalek veteran was introduced as a substitute midway in the second half of Sunday's game, which ended in a narrow 1-0 win for the Red Devils. "Abdul-Aziz is a skilful footballer, he should have started the big game." the international defender said after the pivotal match. "He could have made his team more coherent." Shadi believes Zamalek's Ahmed Al-Merghani was not the right man to mark Ahli mercurial midfielder Mohamed Barakat. "Merghani did well during the game, but he wasn't good enough to keep up with Barakat," he added "Abdul-Aziz could have done better if he had been fielded right from the start."
When asked about both teams' performances, the 32-yea-old said "Zamalek were too cautious at the beginning, and then gradually switched to more attacking style." Best Player Shadi named Egypt teammate Hani Saied the opposition's best player in the derby, as he believes Ahmed Fathi was Ahli's man of the match. "Saied was definitely the best Zamalek player in the game," stated the Ahli skipper. "Fathi played an excellent for our team. Mohamed Samir and Barakat were also influential ."
