When Al-Ahly begins its journey in the Egyptian Premier League, the opening match appears to be more than just three points on the competition table. Over the last ten seasons we have tracked, the start reveals a clear transformation in the team's form: Al-Ahly has not lost any opening match, but it has gradually shifted from cautious beginnings to more powerful and decisive openings.
How has Al-Ahly's opening in the Egyptian Premier League changed over the last 10 seasons?
Between the 2015-2016 and 2019-2020 seasons, Al-Ahly started the league with five matches, achieving three wins and two draws, collecting 11 out of 15 possible points, scoring five goals and conceding two.
The campaign began in the 2015-2016 season against Tala'ea El-Gaish, ending in a 1-0 victory for Al-Ahly, then repeating the same result against Ismaily in the following season's opener. However, the picture changed slightly in the next two seasons; Al-Ahly drew 1-1 with Tala'ea El-Gaish in 2017-2018, and again with the same scoreline against Ismaily in 2018-2019.
The 2019-2020 season marked the turning point. Al-Ahly defeated Smouha 1-0, closing the first five years of this sequence without any defeat, yet with an attacking performance that had not yet reached the level that would emerge later.
The Turning Point: From Caution to Decisiveness
Starting from the 2020-2021 season, a completely different sequence began.
Al-Ahly defeated Misr Lel-Makkasa 3-1, then crushed Ismaily 4-0 in the 2021-2022 season opener. In the following season, they again beat Ismaily 1-0, before securing an even bigger victory against Al-Masry 4-0 in 2023-2024.
Then came the 2024-2025 season opener against Ceramica Cleopatra, which turned out to be the highest-scoring match in the sequence, as Al-Ahly won 5-2.
Thus, the last five opening matches transformed into a perfect record of victories: five matches, five wins, 15 points out of 15, with 17 goals scored and only three conceded.
More importantly, this period witnessed six consecutive opening victories, starting with the win against Smouha in 2019-2020 and continuing until the match against Ceramica Cleopatra in 2024-2025.
The Numbers Reveal the Transformation
Comparing the two periods highlights the change even more sharply.
In the first five opening matches, Al-Ahly scored five goals and conceded two, averaging one goal per match.
In contrast, during the last five opening matches, they scored 17 goals and conceded only three, averaging 3.4 goals per match.
In other words, not only did the number of Al-Ahly's victories increase, but their attacking power at the start of the season also rose significantly.
Across all ten matches, Al-Ahly achieved eight wins and two draws without any defeat, scoring 22 goals while conceding only five, resulting in a goal difference of +17.
Moreover, they kept clean sheets in six out of ten matches, representing a rate of 60%.
What Does This Start Say About Al-Ahly?
These figures do not mean that the result of the first round predicts what will happen throughout the rest of the season, nor are they sufficient alone to judge the team's strength or their chances of winning the title.
However, they reveal something more specific: in recent years, Al-Ahly has entered the league with greater decisiveness compared to the beginning of the analyzed period.
While the first five opening matches included two draws and only three wins, the last five matches were all victories, accompanied by a significant rise in the scoring rate.
The difference is also evident in the largest victories: Al-Ahly achieved a four-goal margin in the 2021-2022 opener against Ismaily (4-0) and in the 2023-2024 opener against Al-Masry (4-0), before recording their highest tally in the final match of the sequence, scoring five goals against Ceramica Cleopatra.
