The 2020 Egyptian Super Cup (also known as the 2018–19 SAIB Egyptian Super Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th

Egyptian Super Cup The Egyptian Super Cup is Football in Egypt, Egyptian football's annual match contested between the champions of the Egyptian Premier League season and the holders of the Egypt Cup. If the Egyptian Premier League champions also won the Egypt Cup ...

, an annual football match played between the winners of the previous season's

Egyptian Premier League The Egyptian Premier League (), also known as the Nile League () for sponsorship reasons, after the addition of title sponsor Nile Developments, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the highest level of the Egyptian football ...

and

Egypt Cup The Egypt Cup (also known as the Egyptian FA Cup and formerly as the King Farouk Cup) is the main knockout football cup competition in Egypt. It is the oldest club competition in Africa. The first team to win the trophy was Zamalek in 1922. Al A ...

. It was played at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

, United Arab Emirates, on 20 February 2020, contested by

Al Ahly Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...

and

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

. Zamalek defeated Al Ahly and won the match 4–3 on penalties after being tied 0–0, winning the Egyptian Super Cup title for the fourth time in their history.

Background

In the

2018–19 Egyptian Premier League The 2018–19 Egyptian Premier League, also known as The Telecom Egypt, WE League for sponsorship purposes, was the 60th season of the Egyptian Premier League, the top Egyptian professional league for association football clubs, since its establish ...

, Al Ahly and Zamalek were joined by

Pyramids A pyramid () is a Nonbuilding structure, structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a Pyramid (geometry), pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid ca ...

in title race throughout the season. Pyramids managed to grab 10 points out of 12 possible from their matches against Al Ahly and Zamalek and were leading the table by Matchday 29. However, after winning only 1 match and drawing 4 in their last 5 matches of the season, Pyramids missed their chance to win the league and to qualify for the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

as they finished the league in 3rd place. Al Ahly eventually won the league for the 41st time in their history with 1 game to spare following their 3–1 win against Al Mokawloon Al Arab. Zamalek won the

2018–19 Egypt Cup The 2018–19 Egypt Cup was the 87th edition of the oldest recognised football tournament in Africa. It is sponsored by WE, and known as the WE Cup for sponsorship purposes. It started with the First Preliminary Round on 12 August 2018, and conclu ...

after defeating

3–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, winning the title for the 27th time in their history. Identical to the previous editions of the competition, the

Egyptian Football Association The Egyptian Football Association () is the governing body of association football in Egypt. A member of FIFA since 1923 and a founding member of the CAF, the EFA has jurisdiction over the Egyptian football league system and is responsible for ...

were heavily criticized for the draw procedure where the cup defending champions and the league winners were placed in different paths to make sure that they could face each other only in the final. During the 2018–19 season, both teams met each other in the league two times and once in the

. The first encounter was played on 30 March 2019 at

Borg El Arab Stadium The Borg El Arab Stadium (), sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Army Stadium or El Geish Stadium - Alexandria (), is a stadium commissioned in 2005 in the Mediterranean Sea city of Amreya; 25 km west of Alexandria, Egypt. It is the sec ...

and ended goalless. Al Ahly won the second encounter 1–0 which was played on 28 July 2019 at the same stadium thanks to

Ali Maâloul Ali Maâloul (; born 1 January 1990) is a retired Tunisian footballer who used to play as a left-back for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly and the Tunisia national team. Club career Maâloul started his career with hometown club CS Sfaxien ...

's second-half strike. The third encounter was the previous season's super cup, which was played on 20 September 2019 and also at Borg El Arab Stadium. Al Ahly won the match 3–2 with two goals from Junior Ajayi and one from Hussein El Shahat, while Mahmoud Alaa scored a brace of penalties for Zamalek.

Venue

The match was played at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The stadium has an estimated capacity of 37,500 and is the home venue of

UAE Pro League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

side Al Jazira. It was one of the eight venues that hosted the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

in the country, including one of the semi-final matches. The stadium also hosted the 2016–17 Egyptian Super Cup between both teams on 10 February 2017, which was won by Zamalek 3–1 on penalties after the game originally ended goalless.

Pre-game

Al Ahly's main winger Ramadan Sobhi was not included in the traveling squad to the United Arab Emirates after suffering from a hamstring injury during training in late December 2019. Other notable excluded players were

Hamdy Fathy Hamdy Fathy Abdelhalim Abdelfattah (; born 29 September 1994) is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly, on loan from Qatar Stars League club Al-Wakrah and the Egypt natio ...

, who is on the recovery stage from a torn ACL injury, and striker Marwan Mohsen. Zamalek lost Mohamed Abdel Ghani's services for the match as he suffered from

pubalgia Athletic pubalgia, also called sports hernia, core injury, hockey hernia, hockey groin, Gilmore's groin, or groin disruption, is a medical condition of the pubic joint affecting athletes. It is a syndrome characterized by chronic groin pain in ...

during training just four days after facing

Espérance de Tunis :''See also Esperance (disambiguation)'' Espérance is one of the two French language, French words that can be translated into "hope", the other being "espoir". Whereas the latter is closer to the idea of "dream" or "fantasy" and corresponds to mo ...

in the 2018–19 CAF Super Cup, which was won 3–1 by his side.

Match

Officials

On 16 February 2020, the

named Norwegian referee Svein Oddvar Moen as the referee for the match. Moen is familiar with Egyptian football, as he officiated the

Cairo derby The Cairo derby () or the Top Match (), known as the Arab Classico () is a rivalry between Egyptian Association football, football clubs Al Ahly SC, Al Ahly and Zamalek SC, Zamalek, arguably the two most successful clubs in Egypt and Africa. Al A ...

between the two teams during the

2015–16 Egyptian Premier League The 2015–16 Egyptian Premier League was the 57th season of the Egyptian Premier League, the top Egyptian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948. The fixtures were announced on 20 September 2015. The s ...

in addition to the 2017 Egypt Cup Final between Al Ahly and Al Masry. His compatriots Magnus Lundberg and Kim Tomas Haglund were chosen as the assistant referees, while Tore Hansen was chosen as the fourth official. Croatian referee Goran Gabrilo was named the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

, and fellow Croatian Miro Grgić appointed as the assistant video assistant referee.

Details

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egyptian Super Cup, 2019-20

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2018–19 in Egyptian football Al Ahly SC matches Zamalek SC matches February 2020 sports events in Egypt