SUPER SALAH
Forward sends Egypt into Cup of Nations last 16
MOHAMED Salah scored his first goal of the Africa Cup of Nations as hosts Egypt secured a place in the last 16 on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ahmed Elmohamady prodded Egypt ahead on 25 minutes after a wicked Salah cross and the Liverpool star slammed in a second shortly before half-time to spark frenzied celebrations at a packed Cairo International Stadium.
Record seven-time champions Egypt rode their luck at times as Congo twice struck the crossbar in the first half but the Group A leaders held firm to join Nigeria as the first teams through to the knockout phase.
Egypt overcame the distraction of Amr Warda being banished from the squad earlier in the day over mounting sexual harassment allegations. The claims surfaced earlier this week on social media platforms. Multiple women posted screenshots and testimonies of Warda’s alleged lewd comments.
“I think the team is strong and the squad is strong but we are not happy to lose a member of our family,” said coach Javier Aguirre. “The team focused more on our match and played the 90 minutes in a serious manner. I don’t think the Egyptian team will be affected by the absence of anyone.”
Mexican Aguirre fielded the
same side that defeated Zimbabwe 1-0, with centre-back Ahmed Hegazy sporting a mask after breaking his nose in the opening game of the tournament.
Salah was guilty of missing a hatful of chances in the curtainraiser and this season’s Premier League joint top scorer again threatened inside five minutes here when an interception broke his way only for the Egyptian to skew wide under pressure.
After four days of small crowds, another capacity 75,000 crowd turned out to cheer on the hosts in the capital, but they were nearly silenced when Marcel Tisserand slammed against the bar at a corner.
“The feelings are mixed when you play such a match. Unfortunately we lost so the feeling is one of hurt, particularly for my players. They gave a lot and fought hard but didn’t get the result,” said Congo coach Florent Ibenge, whose side fell 2-0 to Uganda in their opening match.
“We’ve got one match left against Zimbabwe and we can hope for third place. We’re going to fight until the end.”
Meanwhile, Two glaring misses by Knowledge Musona cost Zimbabwe as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Uganda on Wednesday.
Uganda followed up their surprise 2-0 win over Congo in their first game by taking a 12thminute lead through Emmanuel Okwi before Khama Billiat levelled for Zimbabwe five minutes before the break.
Musona should have equalised before that but fired over from close range and was guilty of an even worse effort in the second half when he hit the crossbar with an open goal from six metres.
Uganda have four points from two games in Group A with Zimbabwe, beaten 1-0 by Egypt in their first game, on one although they are still in the running for a last-16 place.
“It was a difficult game for us, we scored first and after our goal, we didn’t withstand the pressure of this game,” said Uganda coach Sebastien Desabre.
“Zimbabwe’s goal was logical .... in the second half we changed our organisation and it was better and I am proud of our players.”
“Today we created many chances and failed to put them away,” said Zimbabwe coach Sunday Chibzambwa. “This happens in football.”
Nigeria advanced to the knockout stage on Wednesday as they beat Guinea 1-0, having taken more than an hour to break the deadlock for the second straight match.
Nigeria centre back Kenneth Omeruo scored the only goal of the game after 73 minutes, rising unchallenged to head home a corner from Moses Simon at the Alexandria Stadium.