Ahli assistant coach Alaa Maihoub is convinced that his side's 1-1 draw with Ismaili in the Egyptian Premier League will cause the title race to be lengthy. Ismail's Ahmed Sedik broke the deadlock after 17 minutes, but Mostafa Shebeita restored parity late in the first half. "Both teams were praiseworthy," Maihoub told the post-match press conference. "Ahli were aiming to win and that's why we deployed two strikers in Emad Meteb and Mohamed Fadl. "The road to the title is still long, and now we need to win all our upcoming games to stay on top of the league table." Defending champions Ahli also drew with Ittihad and Zamalek in their previous couple of games, and now they lie at the top of the league table with 29 points, four ahead of closest rivals Petrojet. On the other hand, Ismaili assistant coach Ashraf Khedr assured that the Dervishes were abysmally affected by the dismissal of Moatasem Salem. Nearly on the hour mark, Salem received his marching orders for two bookable offences either side of the interval, which helped Ahli take a stranglehold on the game. "After taking the lead, we kept defending to keep our slender lead intact," Khedr said. "Salem's red card definitely took its toll on us. "But we still have a chance to claim the league title. "There is a five-point gap between us and Ahli. At the same time last season we were trailing them by 15 points."
