Al Ahly have reached an agreement to play a second friendly match in Spain as part of their preparations for their meeting with Barcelona on 19 August.
The Egyptian club will face Europa FC on Friday, completing a two-match programme in their Spanish training camp after club officials worked to resolve uncertainty over their second warm-up fixture.
Al Ahly’s first friendly is scheduled for this evening against Badalona, a club from the fifth division of the Spanish league.
The agreement with Europa comes after two days of negotiations involving Al Ahly’s delegation and football company as they searched for an appropriate opponent before the much-anticipated Barcelona fixture.
An Al-Ahly source told “ winwin ” in an exclusive statement that the club’s delegation, led by board member Tariq Qandil, worked alongside board member Ahmed Hossam and the football company to contact several clubs in an effort to arrange the additional match.
The search had initially included Valencia, who had previously expressed an interest in playing Al Ahly in a friendly.
However, that proposal did not materialise because Al Ahly were unwilling to leave Barcelona, while Valencia had already reached an agreement to play Raja Casablanca of Morocco.
The source said: “Al-Ahly re-established contact with Valencia, who had previously offered to play a friendly match with the Red Devils, but the refusal to leave Barcelona caused the apology, but Valencia had already agreed with Raja Casablanca of Morocco.”
With the Valencia option unavailable, Al Ahly continued discussions with other clubs before reaching an agreement with Europa FC.
The final arrangement was completed on Wednesday morning, with the match scheduled for Friday rather than Thursday.
He explained: “Tariq Qandil and Ahmed Hossam Awad succeeded in reaching an agreement this morning with a team called Europa to play a friendly match that will take place the day after tomorrow, Friday, instead of tomorrow, Thursday.”
The decision is intended to give coach Hussein Ammouta another opportunity to assess his squad before the Barcelona encounter.
According to the Moroccan coach, Europa represents a suitable opponent for this stage of Al Ahly’s preparations and will provide another competitive test as the team builds towards its meeting with the Spanish giants.
Europa FC also offers an interesting historical connection with Al Ahly. The Catalan club was established in 1907, the same year in which Al Ahly were founded.
Based in Barcelona’s well-known Gràcia district, Europa has a long association with football in Catalonia and Spain.
The club was among the teams that took part in the inaugural edition of the Spanish Football League in 1929, giving it an important place in the country’s football history despite its lengthy absence from the top division.
Europa currently competes in the third tier of Spanish football.
They narrowly missed out on promotion last season after finishing fifth with 60 points from 38 matches. During the campaign, they scored 55 goals and conceded 50.
That position earned Europa a place in the promotion play-offs for the second division, where they faced Celta Fortuna.
The tie remained finely balanced after the first leg ended 1-1. Europa were ultimately eliminated after losing the second leg 3-2, meaning they remained in the third division.
For Al Ahly, the meeting with Europa will now form the second part of their Spanish preparation schedule.
The sequence of matches against Badalona and Europa is designed to provide Ammouta with further opportunities to evaluate his players before the club faces Barcelona on 19 August.
The agreement also brings an end to the uncertainty surrounding Al Ahly’s second friendly, after the club had been forced to explore several alternatives following the failure to arrange the proposed Valencia fixture.
With the second match now confirmed, attention can turn towards the preparations themselves and the challenge of facing Barcelona.
The Europa game on Friday will therefore be Al Ahly’s final scheduled friendly in Spain before the Barcelona test, giving the squad another chance to build match sharpness and allowing the coaching staff to assess the team’s readiness for one of the most significant fixtures of the camp.
