Al-Ahly vs Mountain Wolves: Dramatic 1-1 Draw at Arab Contractors Stadium

Al-Ahly threw everything at the Mountain Wolves, but the champions left the Arab Contractors Stadium with only a 1-1 draw and a long list of what-ifs on a charged Egyptian Premier League night.

Islam Gaber stunned the Reds with a first-half penalty in the 38th minute, before Ahmed Sayed "Zizo" replied from the spot early in the second half. Al-Ahly had a second goal ruled out, lost Amr El-Gazzar to a serious injury, and watched their late pressure fizzle out against a stubborn Arab Contractors side that refused to break.

Gaber Shock as Contractors Draw First Blood

From the opening whistle, the pattern felt familiar. Al-Ahly on the ball, Arab Contractors camped deep, the Mountain Wolves absorbing and waiting.

Soufiane Bendebka fired the first warning, dragging a shot wide from distance. Zizo then whipped in a teasing corner that forced the hosts into a hurried clearance. The pressure was there. The cutting edge was not.

For nearly 20 minutes, neither goalkeeper had a save to make. Then the game snapped into life.

Arab Contractors carved out the clearest chance of the half when their striker burst clean through on goal, only for Amr El-Gazzar to bail Al-Ahly out with a vital intervention. It should have been the wake-up call.

Instead, the Mountain Wolves doubled down.

Omar Kamal Abdelwahed’s foul inside the area left the referee with a simple decision: penalty. Up stepped Islam Gaber, calm and ruthless, drilling home in the 38th minute to score the first goal past Al-Ahly on the night and flip the script inside the stadium.

Al-Ahly tried to respond before the break. El-Gazzar surged forward and met a cross in stoppage time, but his header skewed wide. The whistle went with Arab Contractors clinging to a shock lead, their clean, clinical strike the difference.

Injury, Penalties and a Disallowed Goal: Second Half Chaos

The restart brought chaos.

Within four minutes, disaster struck for Al-Ahly. El-Gazzar, who had rescued them in the first half and nearly equalised, went down with a serious injury in the 49th minute and had to be forced off. The mood shifted. The urgency grew.

Al-Ahly pushed higher. Mohamed Beker tried to thread a decisive pass into Achraf Bencharki inside the box, but overhit it. The chance looked gone. Then Bencharki took matters into his own hands.

He drove at the Arab Contractors defence, weaving through challenges before a violent tackle from Khaled Abdelfattah cut him down in the area. Another clear penalty. This time for Al-Ahly.

Zizo stepped up and, with the composure expected of him, buried the spot-kick in the 57th minute. All square. Game back on.

The equaliser lit the night.

Barely had the celebrations died down when Emam Ashour entered the fray in the 58th minute, making his first appearance in 112 days after last featuring against Al-Masry at the end of the 2025/2026 season. His return added a jolt of electricity to the stands and the pitch.

The pressure finally told in the 62nd minute – or so Al-Ahly thought. Mohamed Beker found the net, sparking wild celebrations, only for the referee to rule the goal out for offside. In an instant, joy turned to disbelief, and Arab Contractors were handed a lifeline they clung to with everything they had.

From there, the game simmered rather than boiled. Al-Ahly probed, Arab Contractors dropped deeper, and the Mountain Wolves began to look more interested in preserving the point than chasing all three.

Emam’s Late Warning Shot

The match drifted towards its conclusion with half-chances and blocked efforts, until Emam Ashour almost wrote the perfect comeback story.

In the 88th minute, the returning midfielder unleashed a superb strike from outside the area, his effort skimming just a few centimetres over the bar. It was the kind of moment that usually defines tight league nights. This time, it left only groans and hands on heads.

Arab Contractors survived the late scare and walked away with a precious point, their discipline and resilience rewarded. Al-Ahly, for all their possession, penalties and pressure, were left to rue an injury, a disallowed goal, and a night when the Mountain Wolves simply refused to be tamed.

How costly will those two dropped points look when the title race tightens?