Ahli have sustained their unbeaten record against Harras Hodoud in the league, edging the Alexandrians 1-0 thanks to a second-half header by Emad Meteb. Meteb netted his eighth career goal against Hodoud in the 63rd minute to give the defending champions a winning start. Curiously, the result resembled the one that saw Hodoud make their top-flight debut nine years ago, when a Mohamed Fadl header lifted Ahli at the Alexandria Stadium. Even though they managed to beat Ahli three times in other competitions, Tarek Al-Ashri's side have never won three points against the Reds in the league. Ahli's starting line-up included the names of four summer signings as Fabio Junior, Mohamed Naguib, Walid Soliman and Abdullah Al-Saied made their league debut for the champions. The new recruits prompted Manuel Jose to play with an uncommon 4-4-2 formation, with the fit-again Sherif Ekrami replacing Ahmed Adel in goal. Unhappy Jose as Meteb saves the day The match was hardly exciting as a poor first-half only saw Meteb thwarted by a fine block from Ali Farag when he was one-on-one with the Hodoud keeper. In a repeated scene, Ahli boss Jose seemed far from satisfied with his team's performance as he was caught more than once groaning on the touchline. But the Portuguese could have no complains with Meteb's finish, following a terrific cross by Sayed Moawad. Soliman should have doubled Ahli's lead shortly after the goal, but his close-range effort was brilliantly denied by Farag. Although Ahli were on a stadium because of the alleged violent behavior of their fans in a cup game last month, the Ultras Ahlawy group didn't seem to be fazed by the sanction as they came up with another infringement.
