Zamalek players celebrate best start to league season since 2003/04 Cairo – Hossam Al Said Egypt\'s Zamalek maintained their unbeaten run in the Premier League with a dominant 3-0 win away at Petrojet on Thursday afternoon. Goals from Abdoulaye Cissé (45 min), Ahmed Gaafar (72 min) and Ahmed Eid (83 min) made it four wins out of four for Jorvan Vieira\'s men.
Petrojet began the game on the front foot, but failed to threaten goalkeeper Abdelwahed el-Sayed\'s goal, while Zamalek slowly took control of the game, launching a series of fast-paced counter-attacks in the opening 15 minutes.
In the 7th minute, Zamalek\'s Nour el-Sayed fired over after a free-kick on the edge of the box was deflected in his path. The midfielder was denied two minutes later when Petrojet goalkeeper al-Mahdi Suleiman parried his effort out for a corner.
Petrojet winger Osama Mohammed tried to break through Zamalek\'s defence, but it was el-Sayed who wasted another golden opportunity on the half-hour mark, shooting wide as he tried to catch out Suleiman off his line.
The last 15 minutes of the first half saw Zamalek intensify their pressure in an attempt to break the deadlock. They got the breakthrough just before half-time, when striker Cissé took advantage of Petrojet\'s poor defence to give Zamalek the lead.
Petrojet brought Mohammed Ashraf on for Marwan Mohsen at the start of the second half, but it was the league leaders who began the better, looking to add to their first-half lead.
In the 56th minute, Ahmed Eid was denied by an alert Suleiman, as he tried to convert Mohammed Abdel Shafy\'s precise through-ball. Zamalek continued to ask questions of the Petrojet defence and got their reward. In In the 72nd minute, Nour el-Sayed\'s corner rebounded off Suleiman and found Gaafar, who fired into the empty net from six yards.
In the last 10 minutes, Petrojet pushed forward, but struggled to find a way past the Zamalak defence. The Cairo side secured their win with a counter-attack in the 83rd minute when Hazem Imam broke through the Petrojet backline and crossed for Gaafar, his first time pass found Eid one-on-one with Suleiman and the Egyptian dinked the ball over the goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
Zamalek saw out the remaining normal time and four minutes of injury time to make it their best start to a league season since 2003/04.