El Gouna vs Baladiyat El Mahalla Prediction: A draw should be a huge result for the two teams

El Gouna will take on Baladiyat El Mahalla at the Cairo International Stadium in an Egyptian Premier League encounter. Coming into this game, El Gouna have won the two meetings between these teams. Will the visiting Mahalla get their luck this time?

El Gouna is coming off a League Cup encounter against Tersana. In that game, this team settled for a goalless draw after extra time and needed a penalty win to book their spot in the next round. In the meantime, the prior matches of El Gouna before that cup win saw them lose to ENPPI, Modern Sport, Al Masry, and Zamalek, with their best results being consecutive draws with Ceramica Cleopatra and El Ismaily. Heading into this round 33 match, El Gouna have 33 points accumulated from the first 32 games, positioning them 13th in the standings. 

Baladiyat El Mahalla's last game was against El Ismaily in the league. This team secured a win in a game that ended 4-2 in that encounter. In that match, Mohamed Ashraf scored three times. At the same time, a late Abdo Semana goal sealed the win for this team despite Mohamed Ammar and Abdelrahman Magdi's efforts to deny Baladiyat El Mahalla maximum points in that game. In the meantime, it is worth noting that the win was Baladiyat El Mahalla's lone victory in their last ten matches in all competitions, as they remain in the relegation spot. 

The two teams have met twice this year. In the first encounter, El Gouna secured a road win, a game that ended 1-2. However, their second game saw Baladiyat El Mahalla battled to a draw at regular but then lost on penalties 1-2 in a league cup. 

I do not see a winner in this game. At the moment, the two teams are not playing at the top level, and they will need a bit of luck if they want a positive result here. Looking at how their prior encounters ended, a tight scoreline might be expected with a focus on defensive play. While I feel both teams should still be able to find the back of the net, a 1-1 draw at full-time looks like a perfect score.