CAIRO: FFlavio Amado s first-half header gave title holders Ahly a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Petrojet on Saturday to send the Cairo giants to the Egyptian Cup quarter-finals.
The Angolan striker hit the winner midway through the first-half as Ahly went through despite producing a mediocre performance.
Ahly s only significant changes in starting line-up included the return of Hossam Ashour at the expense of suspended Anis Boujelbene in midfield, and also Amir Abdul-Hamid replaced first-choice goalkeeper Essam Al-Hadari who was rested.
The visitors surprisingly took the initiative when Mohamed Koffi s fierce drive forced a fine save from Abdul-Hamid after 16 minutes.
Abdul-Hamid came to Ahly s rescue once again when he thwarted a clear-on-goal Alaa Ibrahim with a clever block three minutes later.
However, the Egyptian champions responded in the 24th minute when Emad Meteb s effort was parried by Ahmed Fawzi, and Flavio headed in from Mohamed Aboutrika s resulting corner.
Manuel Jose made a halftime substitution, introducing Mohamed Barakat for Meteb.
A poor second-half almost passed without much danger at both ends, but action started as late as the 83rd minute.
Flavio had a chance to double the lead when he went through on goal but he missed the target completely with a lazy lob.
Petrojet s Ivorian substitute Zeka Goory almost punished Ahly a minute later, but his effort cannoned off the post as the Ahly defense were caught napping.
One minute into injury time, Ahly substitute Osama Hosni exchanged passes with Flavio but failed to repeat his midweek late strike against Petrojet as Fawzi blocked his poor finish.
