In their essential Africa Cup of Nations match on Thursday, Egypt confronted one other setback as Mohamed Salah sustained an harm earlier than twice recovering from a deficit to safe a 2-2 draw with Ghana.
Mohamed Kudus scored each targets for Ghana, however the “Black Stars” have been let down by defensive errors as Omar Marmoush and Mostafa Mohamed capitalized to dent the four-time champion’s hopes of creating the knockout stage.
“We made careless mistakes,” Kudus stated. “Now we’ll have to get back to work, win the next one and then see what happens.”
Ghana remained on the backside of Group B with only one level, stage with Mozambique, whereas Egypt was second, two factors behind group chief Cape Verde.
Cape Verde and Mozambique play their second recreation of the match on Friday. Only the highest two in every group are assured of advancing.
Egypt’s hopes of a record-extending eighth Africa Cup title suffered a blow earlier than halftime when Salah limped off, holding the again of his left thigh.
Ghana have been boosted by the return of Kudus, who match once more after recovering from a hamstring harm.
Kudus’ workforce began promisingly however discovered it exhausting to get by way of the Egyptians’ defensive strains because the Ghanaian followers let their impatience present.
A cooling break restored the supporters’ good temper, with many standing as much as dance and cheer because the celebration restarted within the stands.
Kudus scored in first-half harm time – a minute after Salah left the sphere – when he obtained the ball from Salis Abdul Samed, eluded one defender, then one other, earlier than firing previous Mohamed El-Shenawy within the Egypt objective from effectively outdoors the world.
Kudus went shut once more after the break earlier than Egypt had a objective dominated out by way of VAR for offside and Marmoush drew a save from Richard Ofori.
Marmoush lastly equalized within the 69th after capitalizing on a botched backpass from Inaki Williams.
Kudus replied two minutes later with a shot that took a slight deflection off a defender to sneak contained in the far publish.
But one other defensive error from Osman Bukari, who had simply changed Williams, allowed Mohamed to equalize three minutes after that.
“The level of performance was good. And we will need this going into the next game,” Ghana coach Chris Hughton stated of his workforce’s must-win match towards Mozambique on Monday. “If we put in this top performance, we have every chance of going through.”
Nigeria upset hosts
William Troost-Ekong’s second-half penalty was sufficient for Nigeria to jolt their marketing campaign into life with a 1-0 win over the host nation, the Ivory Coast.
The “Super Eagles” have been below stress to get a victory after drawing their opening recreation towards Equatorial Guinea and are actually all however sure of reaching the knockout stage.
Coach Jose Peseiro’s workforce lastly confirmed defensive stability, ending a six-game run of conceding a minimum of a objective.
But it was one other irritating efficiency from star participant Victor Osimhen, regardless of incomes the penalty that facilitated the win.
Referee Mustapha Ghorbal awarded the spot kick after consulting video replays and deciding Ousmane Diomande had fouled Osimhen.
Troost-Ekong confidently fired the penalty down the middle of the objective within the fifty fifth.
Osimhen missed the sport’s greatest early probability when he shot excessive and large after being performed by way of by Samuel Chukwueze.
The 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium was largely packed for the match, as organizers stated all tickets have been offered out. The opening video games have been affected by ticketing issues. Fans have been warned to “stay away from the sun” amid temperatures above 30 levels Celsius (86 Fahrenheit and humidity of 75%.
Abidjan was bustling with excited followers lengthy earlier than the sport, many carrying its distinctive orange jersey, blowing their horns, and waving the nation’s orange, white, and inexperienced flags.
But Ivory Coast dropped to 3rd in Group A on three factors, one behind Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria.
The “Elephants” subsequent face Equatorial Guinea on Monday, when Nigeria play Guinea-Bissau for his or her closing group recreation.
Nsue’s hat trick document
Emilio Nsue scored a hat trick, and Equatorial Guinea took an enormous step towards the knockout stage with a 4-2 win over Guinea-Bissau within the early kickoff.
The 34-year-old Nsue grew to become the oldest participant to attain a hat trick on the match, which is in its thirty fourth version and the primary in 16 years.
Substitute Ze Turbo scored Guinea Bissau’s comfort objective in harm time however couldn’t forestall the nation’s winless run on the Africa Cup from stretching to 11 video games.
The “Djurtus” are backside of the group after dropping each video games to date.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
