Egyptian substitute Emad Meteb squandered a golden chance to grab a long-anticipated win over the Moroccans when he collected the ball unmarked to shot in the body of goalkeeper Tarek Jarmouni deep into injury time.

The result raised Egypt’s point tally to 4 in second spot of their Group A while Morocco bagged their first point of the group stage to come in third place.

Egypt looked like the stronger side in the first-half but wasted several chances to break the deadlock.

Morocco goalkeeper Jarmouni was called into action after only 15 seconds when he intercepted a dangerous cross on its way to the unmarked Amr Zaki.

Zaki squandered a second chance when he mis-timed his take off and failed to connect with Mohamed Barakat’s inch-perfect cross.

Egypt winger Ahmed Fathi was the culprit in the 24th minute when he latched on to a long pass from Ahmed Hassan to go one-on-one with Jarmouni and shoot wide with the goal at his mercy.

Morocco picked up their pace late in the first-half and created the first real chance in the 37th minute when striker Youssef Hadji fired a dodgy ball that was well stopped by keeper Essam Al-Hadari.

Al-Hadari saved Egypt blushes after the interval with a series of solid saves most notably Hadji’s 67th minute header that saw the Ahli guardian stretch to palm the ball away.

Two minutes later Abdul-Zaher Al-Saqqa curled a brilliant free-kick that was superbly stopped by Jarmouni.

The draw is the first in the African Cup of Nations after nine games.

Egypt will next take on Ivory Coast while Morocco play Libya in the final Group A match-day on Saturday