Ahmed Shobier stunned by Al Ahly’s 3-3 draw with Al-Qanah

“I was stunned,” Ahmed Shobier said after Al Ahly drew 3-3 with Al-Qanah last Wednesday in the Egyptian Premier League. The journalist strongly criticised Al Ahly’s players, whose performance prompted considerable anger among the club’s supporters and officials. His complaints centred on the team’s retreat, its lack of aggression and mistakes he considered signs of a serious failure to concentrate.

Speaking on the radio, Shobier first focused on Al Ahly’s defensive positioning. He noted that the team was facing Al-Qanah at Cairo Stadium, then contrasted the high press he expected with the deeper approach he saw. “Al Ahly should move forward to press near the penalty area; what seems abnormal to me is dropping back to a third of the pitch, or even halfway across it,” he said. In his view, that approach gave up the initiative and left the opposition too much space.

His criticism was not confined to the team’s overall shape. Shobier was also angered by Al Ahly retreating after scoring, as though the club had to protect its lead rather than keep playing. “Is Al Ahly a small team that it should defend after scoring? It is truly surprising,” he said. He described players who, when the ball came back towards the defence or goalkeeper, failed to clear it and simply stood looking at one another. To him, the lack of a response in those moments summed up the team’s difficulties.

The former Al Ahly goalkeeper then broadened his criticism to the side’s effort and execution. “Al Ahly are not pressing, have neither fighting spirit nor the desire to win the ball back, and are not even concentrating on their passes,” he said, before congratulating Al-Qanah on its performance. The harshness of his comments came amid widespread discontent: the draw angered Al Ahly supporters and officials, while the team’s display was considered poor.

Shobier also pointed out that the result could leave Al-Qanah with regrets. In his assessment, the side could view the draw as two points lost rather than one gained: it had fought back twice and then taken a 3-2 lead. Al Ahly equalised in the final two minutes. Although Shobier acknowledged that the Cairo club had attacked more, he felt that the late equaliser should not overshadow Al-Qanah’s ability to recover and go ahead.

Finally, he singled out Al-Qanah’s third goal. In his account, goalkeeper Mohamed Shaaban sent the ball a long way forward, but Mohamed Hamdy Zaky was left alone among three defenders. Shobier blamed the players for allowing the attacker to continue, before sending the ball into their own net. That sequence, along with the retreat and errors in playing out that he criticised, reinforced his view that Al Ahly had not shown the control expected of them in the 3-3 draw.