Egypt ease past Namibia

السبت، 05 يناير 2008 - 20:38

كتب : Hatem Maher

A brace from Amr Zaki helped Egypt claim an easy 3-0 victory over Namibia in Aswan in the Pharaohs’ first warm-up for the African Cup of Nations in Ghana.

Skipper Ahmed Hassan was also on the scoresheet as Egypt began their CAN preparations with a comfortable victory.

The five-time African champions will then face Mali in Abou Dhabi on January 10th before flying to Portugal three days later to play Angola.

Poor Half

Egypt were far from impressive in the first-half.

Namibia produced the first scare after four minutes when a Namibian forward capitalized on some sloppy defending to go clear but his shot was blocked by Essam Al-Hadari.

Although Egypt dominated afterwards, the three-man backline was shaky against tamed efforts by the visitors.

Hosni Abd-Rabou’s curling free-kick in the eighth minute went just over the bar before Zaki wasted a golden opportunity to open the scoring seven minutes later.

Ahmed Al-Muhammadi swung a pinpoint cross from the right to the unmarked Zamalek man, who terribly headed wide.

Emad Meteb should have put Egypt in front in the 33rd minute when he latched on to Hossam Ghaly’s long ball inside the area.

The Ahli striker did well to control it but his low shot missed the target. Few minutes later, a Zaki bullet went just wide of the post.

Shortly before the halftime whistle, Egypt boss Hassan Shehata introduced Ahli playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika instead of the ineffective Omar Gamal.

Egypt Lead

Zaki finally broke Namibia’s resistance eight minutes after restart following a fine move by his teammates.

Ghaly’s through pass found Hosni Abd-Rabou on the edge of the area before the Ismaili midfielder superbly back-heeled to Zaki inside the area.

The combative striker fired a powerful shot at the near post to break the deadlock.

In the 58th minute, Abou-Treika’s superb scissors kick was tipped over by Namibia keeper.

Hassan, who replaced Ghaly in the second-half, doubled the lead in the 77th minute when he drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of the net.

The Anderlecht midfielder turned from scorer to provider two minutes from time. His free-kick at the far post was headed home by Zaki to wrap up the win.

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