CAIRO: Ahly youngster Ahmed Galal nailed a hat-trick as Ahly romped to a 3-0 victory over first division side Talkha Electricity on Saturday and advanced to the Egyptian Cup round of 16.
The title holders will face Petrojet, who edged Gasco 2-1, in the competition s second round.
Assistant coach Hossam Al-Badri was in charge of Ahly, with manager Manuel Jose spending a one-week holiday in Portugal.
Al-Badri fielded a second-string squad in a bid to rest Ahly s international players.
Ahly squandered a host of chances to break the deadlock in the first-half but Galal ran riots after the break to secure the win.
Skipper Shadi Mohamed outpaced his challengers down the left before swinging an inch-perfect cross for Galal, whose header went past the wrong-footed keeper in the 63rd minute.
The former Sharkeya player doubled the lead in the 74th minute after he latched-on to Abdul-Hamid Hassan s through pass before side-stepping a defender inside the area and hitting a low drive home.
Galal completed the rout three minutes from time as he curled a low shot into the bottom corner of the net from the edge of the area.
