Amr Shaheen BBC Sport, Cairo

We outclassed them and deserved this victory Al Ahly coach Manuel Jose

The 52-match unbeaten run of Egyptian champions Zamalek has ended, with a 4-2 defeat to arch-rivals Al Ahly.

A brace from Mohammed Abu Treika and goals from Gilberto and Emad gave Ahly the win, in front of 45,000 fans at the Military Academy stadium in Cairo on Thursday.

With their seventh successive victory, the league leaders extend their perfect winning record and are seven points ahead of the champions.

Until their loss to Ahly, Zamalek had been unbeaten since November 2002, which is an Egyptian record.

But commentators were critical of the performance of Turkish referee Culcu Mustafa.

Mustafa, brought in for the Cairo derby - which is always handled by a foreign referee - awarded three controversial penalties during the tense encounter.

"None of the penalties given were right," said an angry Farouk Gafaar, former manager of the Egyptian national team.

"His performance was very poor and he turned the game into chaos."

Ahly opened scoring in the 31st minute, with a long range strike by Abu Treika, who headed home his second in the 51st.

Hamza subsequently converted a 53rd minute penalty for Zamalek but Angolan Gilberto consolidated Ahly's lead when he also scored from the spot three minutes later.

Metaab sealed Ahly's win in the 63rd minute when he hit a close-range shot in the penalty box, after surging past the weak Zamalek defence.