The clash was judged by Mohamed Kamal Risha, and Ismail is convinced that the official favoured the league champions at his team's expense.

"Tonight, it seemed as if Risha was making up for a number of decisions he may have given against Ahli in previous games," Ismail said after the game.

"It was clear that Ahli's fans were against him right from the start and that resulted in putting him under a lot of pressure."

Ismail added that he is satisfied with his players' performance, stressing that Ittihad could have come out of the game with a positive result if it wasn’t for some Risha bad calls.

"It is true that some of my players were showing off, but we had a clear penalty waved away by Risha, which could have changed the game's result."

Despite the defeat, Ittihad remain in sixth position in the Egyptian Premier League table with 33 points.