Ahly hit seven past Lafina as Ammouta’s pre-season preparations gather pace

Al Ahly continued their prolific pre-season under new coach Houcine Ammouta with a comprehensive 7-1 friendly win over Lafina at El Tetsh Stadium.

The Cairo giants, who had beaten Al Nasr 5-1 in their first warm-up game, delivered an even more emphatic scoreline in Ammouta’s second outing in charge as they fine-tune preparations for the new campaign.

Morocco international Achraf Bencharki opened the scoring for Al Ahly, before Karim Fouad doubled the advantage from the penalty spot. Mohamed Abdallah then made it 3-0 to firmly put Ahly in control.

Lafina responded through Adel Nour, who pulled one back to register his side’s first goal of the match, but that proved only a brief interruption to Ahly’s dominance.

Nites Gradishar restored the hosts’ three-goal cushion with Al Ahly’s fourth of the evening, and Mohamed Sherif then struck twice in succession to take the tally to six.

Gradishar rounded off the scoring late on, netting his second of the match and Ahly’s seventh to complete the rout.

Injury concerns for Ammouta

The one major setback for Al Ahly came in the form of an injury to Oktay Abdullah, who was forced off during the game to receive treatment.

In a separate concern, Taher Mohamed Taher appeared on the sidelines wearing a shin guard on his injured leg following the knock he suffered in the previous friendly against Al Nasr, underlining that he is still in the recovery phase.

Before kick-off, several of Al Ahly’s international players were put through light training rather than being involved fully in the match. Emam Ashour, Ahmed Sayed “Zizo”, Mohamed Hany, Marwan Attia and Yasser Ibrahim all took part in reduced-intensity drills.

They were joined by new Moroccan signing Soufiane Benjedida, who is being gradually integrated into the squad as Ammouta manages fitness levels and workloads at this stage of pre-season.

Spanish camp and Barcelona test ahead

Al Ahly’s win over Lafina forms part of a busy summer schedule designed to sharpen the team ahead of domestic and continental commitments.

Following their victories over Al Nasr and Lafina, Ahly are next due to face Petrol Asyut in another friendly on Wednesday, their final domestic outing before heading to Europe.

The club’s training camp in Spain is set to get under way on 6 August, providing Ammouta with extended time on the training ground and further opportunities for friendly matches as he imposes his methods and assesses his squad options.

The highlight of that camp will be a high-profile meeting with Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy on 19 August, a fixture that will offer a far sterner examination of Al Ahly’s readiness for the new season after their free-scoring start to pre-season.