{"id":4433,"date":"2026-02-07T02:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/absences-hit-zamalek-ahead-of-zesco-clash"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:17:57","slug":"absences-hit-zamalek-ahead-of-zesco-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/absences-hit-zamalek-ahead-of-zesco-clash","title":{"rendered":"Absences Hit Zamalek Ahead of Zesco Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>Zamalek and Al-Masry of Port Said, Egypt\u2019s representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup, will play two tough matches in the fifth round of the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>The two teams, competing in Group D, will play the day after tomorrow, Sunday: Zamalek will visit Zambia\u2019s Zesco United, while Al-Masry has traveled to South Africa to face Kaizer Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p><b>Absences hit Zamalek ahead of Zesco<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Colds have swept through Zamalek\u2019s squad, leading to the absence of several key players who did not travel to Zambia.<\/p>\n<p>Zamalek\u2019s football director, Abdel Nasser Mohamed, said that playmaker Abdallah El Sai\u0308d is at the top of the list of absentees for the match.<\/p>\n<p>In comments to Zamalek\u2019s media center before the team departed for Zambia early Friday, he said: \u201cAbdallah El Sai\u0308d is suffering from a cold and a high temperature, which prompted the technical staff to leave him out of the traveling squad for the match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cBrazilian Juan Pizera will be out of the squad due to a foot injury, which also caused him to miss the league match against Kahraba Ismailia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also disclosed that Angolan Chico Banza and Tunisian Seifeddine Jaziri will remain unavailable due to colds, while Omar Gaber continues to be sidelined because of a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>Zamalek top Group D with eight points, one point ahead of Al-Masry and Kaizer Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>A win for Zamalek over Zesco, who are bottom with zero points, would guarantee qualification to the quarter-finals, but any other result could complicate their position in the group.<\/p>\n<p><b>Al-Masry face a tough challenge against Kaizer Chiefs<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Al-Masry will face a difficult match against Kaizer Chiefs, as they need at least a draw to keep their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals alive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. Zamalek and Al-Masry of Port Said, Egypt\u2019s representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup, will play two tough matches in the fifth round of the group stage. The two teams, competing in Group D, will play the day after tomorrow, Sunday: Zamalek will visit Zambia\u2019s Zesco United, while Al-Masry has traveled to South Africa to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Absences Hit Zamalek Ahead of Zesco Clash - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. 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