By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…Sets up Semifinal against Senegal on Wednesday January 14 at 6.00pm . . .
AFRICA’s MOST decorated national male football team with seven titles at AFCON, the Pharaohs of Egypt on Saturday night in Agadir, Morocco trampled out the Defending Champions, Elephants of Ivory Coast 3-2 in a tense quarterfinal match.
Egypt got the curtain raiser when Emam Ashout sent a telepathic pass to Omar Marmous in the 4th minute when the players were trying to size themselves up.
Captain and legendary Mo Salah who is playing his last AFCON tournament floated a pass to Rami Rabi who nodded it in from the penalty box in the 32nd minute. Ahmed Fathou of Egypt made a collateral error when he headed a free kick into his own net, an OWN GOAL in the 40th minute and score board read 2-1.
Emam Ashour came rampaging again and gave his second assist to Captain Mohammed Salah to score in the 52nd minute. It was Salah’s 4th goal in the tournament having scored against Benin, South Africa, Zimbabwe and now against Ivory Coast.
To get to the quarterfinal, seven times AFCON champions. Egypt scored 6 goals conceded 2 and had 2 clean states from beating Zimbabwe 2-1; piped South Africa by a lone goal; drew 0-0 with Angola before Benin was humbled 3-1 in the round of 16 games.
Ivory Coast scored 8 goals conceded 3 goals and had 2 clean slates from beating Mozambique by a lone goal; drew 1-1 with Cameroon; defeated Gabon 3-2 before stalling the Stallions of Burkina Faso 3-0 in the round of 16 games.
Both teams met 8 times Egypt won twice Ivory Coast won twice and there were 4 draws. Of the 17 goals scored, Egypt scored 9. They met four times at AFCON Egypt won twice and there were 2 draws. Although Ivory Coast one won 4-2 on14th January 2013 in a friendly but Egypt also won at the AFCON semifinal of 7th February 2008 in Kumasi Ghana4-1.
The Semifinal schedule is as follows:
First Semifinal is Senegal vs Egypt at Tangier on Wednesday 14th January at 6.00pm.
Second semifinal is Morocco vs Nigeria at Abdellah, Morocco at 9.00pm.
The 3rd place match is scheduled for Saturday 17th January at 5.00pm in Casablanca and the grand finale will be on Sunday 18th January at 8.00pm in Rabat.
#AFCON25 #CAF #FRMF #FMF #SAFA
#FEBEFOOT #TFF#FECAFOOT #SFA
#FAFA #EFA #NFF.
