Al Ahly renewed its hopes of competing for the Egyptian Premier League title, which it has won in the last three seasons, after a valuable 2-1 victory over its traditional rival Zamalek in the ninth round of the competition on Monday.

Al Ahly overturned a 1-0 deficit, conceded by a penalty goal from Zamalek’s Hossam Abdel Meguid in the first half, to win by scoring two goals within 7 minutes in the second half by substitute Hussein El Shahat and Mahmoud Hassan Trezeguet from a penalty, repeating an incident that had not occurred for over 50 years.

What is the rare incident?

This was the first time Al Ahly managed to overturn a deficit against Zamalek to win in their league summit matches since November 22, 1974, when they also won 2-1 under the leadership of the late Hungarian coach Nándor Hidegkuti.

In that match, Zamalek took the lead with a goal by Ghanem Sultan in the 23rd minute, before Al Ahly rallied in the second half scoring two goals by Mostafa Abdo and Abdel Aziz Abdel Shafi (Zizo) in the 58th and 64th minutes, within just 6 minutes.

That match was a step towards Al Ahly’s 12th league title at the time, finishing the season at the top with 59 points, 7 points ahead of their closest rival Al Tersana, while Zamalek finished fifth with 44 points.

When did Zamalek do it?

Conversely, the last match in which either team overturned a deficit to win against the other in the league before Monday’s game was on June 24, 1988, when Zamalek defeated Al Ahly 2-1 under the leadership of their late coach Essam Bahig.

Al Ahly opened the scoring through Shams Hamed in the 22nd minute in a match that missed international players due to their participation with Egypt’s national team in the Arab Championship in Jordan, before Zamalek responded with two goals from their rising stars at the time, Ahmed El Shazly and Nabil Mahmoud in the 40th and 53rd minutes respectively.

Zamalek won its sixth league title then, topping the table with 53 points, 8 goals ahead of Al Ahly, who finished second with the same points.