Wadi Degla coach Mostafa Shabita reveals tactics behind victory over Zamalek

Wadi Degla coach Mostafa Shabita has revealed how his side prepared for their 1-0 victory over Zamalek in the Egyptian League Cup.

Wadi Degla secured all three points on Monday evening in their second Group A fixture, recording their second consecutive win in the competition.

Shabita said his technical team had spent the week analysing Zamalek’s defensive approach, with particular attention paid to how the Cairo giants operate when defending in a low block.

Speaking to MBC Egypt 2, he explained that his side’s main objective was to dominate possession and find ways to penetrate Zamalek’s defensive structure.

“We have been working on Zamalek since the beginning of the week, and we studied how the team defends in a low line. Our goal was to control the ball and try to reach advanced areas,” Shabita said.

He added that his players successfully executed the tactical plan, creating several goalscoring opportunities, although their finishing let them down on a number of occasions.

“We were able to do that and created many opportunities during the match, but finishing those opportunities was a bit lacking in some attacks,” he added.

The Wadi Degla coach also highlighted the importance his technical staff place on set pieces, revealing that the club has brought in a specialist coach to improve their effectiveness in such situations.

Karim El-Shishini joined the technical team during the current season and has been tasked with overseeing the team’s set-piece routines.

“We are working on exploiting set pieces, and we have a specialist coach for these kicks, Karim El-Shishini, who was added to the technical staff during the current season,” Shabita said.

The victory over Zamalek means Wadi Degla have made a perfect start to their League Cup campaign, having opened their group-stage fixtures with a win against Al-Ittihad Alexandria.

They now sit top of Group A with six points from two matches.

Zamalek, meanwhile, are bottom of the standings without a point after suffering back-to-back defeats.

The Egyptian giants began their campaign with a disappointing 3-0 loss to ZED before falling to Wadi Degla in their second outing.

Group A also features ZED, Tala’ea El-Gaish and Al-Ittihad Alexandria, with the teams competing for places in the knockout stages of the competition.