Ahmed Hassan had a dream Zamalek debut against Wadi Degla, inspiring his new club to a 3-1 Egyptian Cup victory on Tuesday. The Egypt captain scored twice to add to the brace of substitute Ahmed Gaafar, following Hassan Mostafa's stunning opener for Degla. A winning debut for new boss Hassan Shehata means that the Whites are through to the cup quarter-finals to face the winner of Wednesday's game between Gouna and Asyut Petroleum. Shehata handed debuts to four summer recruits in Salah Soliman, Hani Saied, Hassan and Hussein Hamdi. At the other end, there was two former Zamalek employees in the starting eleven of Degla as Mostafa and Mohamed Abdul-Wahed led the line in midfield. Mostafa screamer in action-packed half Degla were anything but intimidated against favorites Zamalek, with Ashour Al-Taqi going one-on-one with Abdul-Wahed Al-Sayed after just six minutes but the veteran keeper was there to thwart. Mohamed Abdul-Shafi replied in less than a minute with a header that went inches wide, but the chance of the half came at the mercy of Amr Zaki on 21 minutes when the Egypt forward shockingly missed a Shikabala cross from point-blank range. Two minutes later, Zamalek were punished by a player who left the club less than two months ago as Mostafa produced a stunning debut goal for Degla.
Gaafar had a superb game The defensive midfielder dribbled brilliantly past Hassan before unleashing an unstoppable drive into the top corner of the stranded Al-Sayed. Surprisingly, Degla could have doubled their lead six minutes later when Abdul-Wahed's volley forced a save from Al-Sayed, with the Zamalek defense looking out of sorts. Two minutes from the break, a clear-on-goal Hassan had a golden chance to equalize for the Whites, but his attempted lob went way off target. The comeback Shehata made a significant change after just five minutes when he took off striker Hamdi for defensive midfielder Ibrahim Salah. But the masterstroke was the introduction of striker Gaafar at the expense of center-half Soliman as the former went straight into action with the equalizer on 64 minutes, clinically placing a rebounding ball past the keeper. Six minutes later, Hassan claimed his debut goal in style, firing in a superb diving-header from Zaki's quality cross with the outside of the boot. The blitz went on as Gaafar was sent through with a defense-splitting pass by Shikabala, with all the time in the world to set up Hassan with an easy tap-in before an empty net. Four minutes from time, Gaafar grabbed his brace when he slotted home past Essam Mahmoud after being sent clear by Abdul-Shafi, capitalizing on Degla's slack backline.
