Al-Yurae – Sudan came last of his group with only one point in the 2022 African Nations competition, eliminated from their group by one point after been defeated by Egypt on Wednesday, while Egypt booked the qualifying card for the African Cup of Nations final currently being held in Cameroon.
Mohamed Abdel Moneim scored Egypt’s only winning goal against Sudan in the 35th minute
The Egyptians scored three points, finishing second behind Nigeria by six points, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau with an orphan point.
Egypt’s offensive line-up led by Salah
The outcome before the match was clear, with Nigeria leading the group with six points guaranteed to qualify for the next round, followed by Egypt with three points, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau with one point. Coach Carlos Kiruch started with an offensive line-up led by Mohamed Salah alongside Omar Marmouche on the left and Mustafa Mohamed as a spearhead. The plan to revitalize midfielders Amr Al-Sulayla, Mohamed El Nini and Abdullah al-Saeed, as well as right-backs Omar Kamal and left-hander Ayman Ashraf, who contributed significantly to the building of attacks.
But the first chance was for Sudan after a mass attack from the centre of the field through Mohamed Abdel Rahman, who hit a ball that passed over the goal of Al-Shanawi. Egypt responded with a free kick and a pass from captain Mohamed Salah to Mustafa Mohamed who shot a header outside goalkeeper Mohamed Mustafa.
The Egyptians put pressure from the outset to better their lead than the previous two rounds against Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau, scoring an early goal that avoided a repeat of the scenario of losing to the Excellent Eagles or a hard win over Guinea-Bissau. Salah, Mustafa and Memouche moved and created several opportunities that posed a continuing threat to the Hawks’ goal.
Abdel Moneim frees Egyptians with a strong header
In the 25th minute, Egypt got their best chances through Omar Kamal, who got rid of two defenders and hit hard to be answered by the defence and converted for a corner. The attack was launched from left-back Ayman Ashraf, who passed to Salah and who in turn turned to Kamal.
Ahmed Hijazi’s header nearly produced the first goal in the 32nd minute but the brilliance, versatility and courage of goalkeeper Mustafa prevented her from netting. This did not prevent the Pharaohs from scoring the goal of progress in the shot loyal to the header of defender Mohamed Abdel Moneim after a corner kick by Abdullah Al Said.
Egypt’s dominance continued in the second half, and Abdel Moneim came close in the 52nd minute to the fallacy of substitute goalkeeper Ali Abdullah with a shot that hit the back of a defender into a corner. Salah’s role in threatening the Sudanese goalkeeper followed a series of quirks in defence to shoot and the Sudanese goalkeeper intervened at the last minute to block the ball.
Abdel Moneim failed in front of goal in the 64th minute after a beautiful shot by Mesin Mermouche and Salah, shot out of the frame. Kiruch was looking for an equaliser when he made two changes with Ahmed Sayed entering abdullah al-Saeed and Trezeguet in the place of Mermouche, but the result remained the same until the final.
Nigeria, for their part, achieved the full mark with a third victory over Guinea-Bissau with six goals.
