Ahly claimed their fourth successive win in the Egyptian league this season after defeating Ismaily 2-0 in a league game at Borg El-Arab stadium on Monday. Former Ismaily players Amr El-Sulaya and Abdallah El-Said scored in the 74th and 84th minutes respectively. Monday's win helped Ahly advance into the sixth place in the league table with 13 points, seven points ahead of Ismaily. The game saw the first appearance of Ahly's South African winger Phakamani Mahlambi, who joined Ahly last summer from South African side Bidvest. Mahlambi replaced Moemen Zakareya in the hour-mark and produced a promising performance, especially in term of pace. The defending champions have a good chance of topping the league, as they still have four matches on their hands. After a slow start, Ismaily were close to scoring the opener in the seventh minute when Colombian striker Dieogo Calderon sent a nice shot from inside the area, but his effort was denied by the bar. Ahly tried to reply but couldn't muster a real threat, as their strikers failed to break Ismaily's offside trap on many occasions. Substitute Wagih Abdel-Hakim had a golden scoring opportunity in the 68th minute for Ismaily, but his close-range volley was blocked heroically by Ahly keeper Ahmed El-Shenawi. Six minutes later Ahly midfielder Amr El-Sulaya opened the scoring after Ismaily defender Emad Fathi failed to clear a low cross from Ahmed Fathi to score easily from a close-range situation. Ismaily intensified their attacks to level the score but they struggled against Ahly's organised defence. Ahly's international midfielder Abdallah El-Said doubled the seal six minutes from time when he received a nice cross Nigerian Junior Ajayi to score in an empty net. Moroccan striker Walid Azaro had the chance to make it 3-0 but his close-range shot was denied by Ismaily's keeper Mohamed Awaad.
